JOEL 2 & ISAIAH 49 - GOD'S PEOPLE WILL NO LONGER REJECT THE TRUE MESSIAH
AS I FINALLY SIT AT MY DESK ☕️ TO FINISH MY MORNING PRAYERS .. WELL INTO THE AFTERNOON NOW .. HOLY SPIRIT DREW MY ATTENTION TO THE TIME AS I PRAYED ISAIAH 41 .. THAT WE WILL NOT FEAR .. THAT GOD IS WITH US .. AND THOSE WHO CONTEND WITH US SHALL BE PUT TO SHAME AND CONFOUNDED AND SHALL PERISH. THE TIME WAS 2:49. I WAS LED TO JOEL 2 AND ISAIAH 49.
THERE IS A COMMON THREAD 🧵 THAT RUNS BETWEEN ISAIAH 41, JOEL 2 & ISAIAH 49 .. THE PROMISE OF REDEMPTION, THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS, VINDICATION, AND THE PRESENCE OF GOD. AND AS GOD POURS OUT HIS SPIRIT .. NO LONGER WILL ISRAEL REJECT THEIR MESSIAH .. IN THE LAST DAYS HIS VERY OWN WILL RETURN TO HIM AND CALL HIM LORD. GOD’S LOVE FOR HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE & HIS WATCHFUL EYE OVER THEM IS ETERNAL.
INTERESTING TIMESTAMPS AS I READ ISAIAH 49 🤯👇🏻
⚠️ 3:03 (33) AT THE PART OF ISAIAH 49 ABOUT THE MESSIAH BEING GOD’S SERVANT TO BRING SALVATION TO THE WORLD — THE MESSIAH WAS CRUCIFIED AT AGE 33 🩸
⚠️ 3:11 ON THE PORTION OF SCRIPTURE IN ISAIAH 49 ABOUT OUR ENEMY’S ATTACKS BOOMERANGING BACK ON THEIR OWN CAMP 👉🏻 Isaiah 3:11 “Woe (judgment is coming) to the wicked! It shall go badly with him, For what his hand has done shall be done to him.”
THE DAY OF YAHWEH IS COMING
“Blow the shofar in Zion, sound the alarm on my mountain of holiness! Shake the people awake, for the day of Yahweh is coming. Yes, it is almost here. It will be a day of darkness and gloom, a black and cloudy day. As the dawning light spreads across the mountains, so will a great and powerful people advance, an army such as has never been seen before and such as will never be seen again, not even in all the ages to come. Fire blazes before them, and behind them the flame consumes. Before their eyes, the earth is like the garden of Eden, and behind them they leave a devastated wilderness. Nothing escapes them unscathed. Their appearance is like horses prepared for battle; like war horses, they charge ahead. They rumble like war chariots; they leap over the mountaintops. They devour the land, with the sound of a wildfire devouring stubble. They are a mighty people who are prepared for the battle. At the sight of this army, nations panic, all their faces grow pale. They press forward like mighty warriors, and scale walls like elite soldiers, each marching straight ahead, not swerving from his path. They never jostle each other, for each one stays on his own path. They storm the city and burst through its defenses. Together they are unstoppable. They rush against the city and scale its walls. They climb up into the houses and enter through the windows like thieves.
A VISION OF THE DAY OF YAHWEH
As that army advances, the earth shakes, and the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars no longer shine. Yahweh’s voice thunders as he leads his valiant troops. Numberless are the mighty ones who obey his commands. Yes, the day of Yahweh is great and astonishing! Who can withstand it?
A CALL TO REPENTANCE
“But it’s not too late,” declares Yahweh. “Come back to me now with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tearing your clothes in sorrow is not enough— tear open your hearts!” Come back to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious to welcome you home and compassionate to embrace you. Yahweh is slow to anger and so rich in extravagant love for you. He is always ready to forgive and cancel judgment. Who knows if he will not turn around and show pity, leaving behind a blessing. Then you can bring offerings of grain and wine to be presented to Yahweh your God. Blow the shofar in Zion! Call for a fast and proclaim a solemn assembly. Gather the people together, and prepare them for a sacred meeting. From the oldest to the youngest, assemble the community, even the nursing infants. Let the newly wedded bride and bridegroom come from their chamber. With everyone gathered in the courtyard, the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, must stand weeping between the portico and the altar of burnt offering. Let them face the sanctuary and intercede, saying, “Spare your people! Have pity, Yahweh! Do not expose your very own people to the contempt and sarcasm of the nations. Why give the nations cause to say, ‘Where is their God now?’ ”
YAHWEH’S ANSWER
Then Yahweh showed his great love for the land and showered compassion upon his people. Yahweh answered their cry and said, “Behold, now your fast is over. I am providing you with plenty of wheat, wine, and olive oil until you are satisfied. Never again will I make you an object of scorn among the nations. I will remove your northern enemy far from you and drive him into a dry, desolate land, with his front ranks to the Dead Sea and his rear guard to the Mediterranean Sea. I will destroy them for their boastful deeds, and people will smell the stench of their dead bodies.” Truly, he has done great things!
JOEL’S VISION OF PLENTY
My land, do not fear, for your restoration has come! Be glad and rejoice, you people, for Yahweh has done marvelous things for you. Animals of the field, do not be afraid, for the pastures of the wilderness are green again, the trees bear their fruit, and the vine and fig tree yield their richness. Children of Zion, be glad! Celebrate the mighty acts of Yahweh your God, for he has given you a teacher of righteousness whose teaching is like the refreshing spring rains. And he will pour down the rains for you, the spring and autumn rains as before.
YAHWEH’S PROMISE OF BLESSING
“The threshing floors will be full of grain, the pits beside the presses will overflow with new wine and fresh oil. I will make up for the years the swarms of locusts ruined your harvest— the hopping-locusts, the destroying-locusts, and the cutting-locusts— my great army that I sent against you. You will eat to your heart’s content and be satisfied. You will gloriously praise the name of Yahweh your God, who has treated you so wonderfully. And never will my people be despised again. Then, Israel, you will know without question that I am dwelling among you. I am Yahweh your God, and no one else. I say again: no more will I surrender my people to shame.”
THE OUTPOURING OF GOD’S SPIRIT
“Then afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and your daughters will boldly prophesy, your elderly will have supernatural dreams, and your youth will experience ecstatic visions. And I will even pour out my Spirit in those days upon every servant, both male and female. “And I will display amazing wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be darkened, and the moon will appear as red as blood. These events will occur before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes. And everyone who sincerely worships Yahweh will be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be a remnant who are spared, as I, Yahweh, have promised. They will be the chosen survivors whom I, Yahweh, will call.””
Joel 2:1-32 TPT
THE LORD’S SPECIAL SERVANT
“Listen to what I have to say, you islands. Pay attention to me, you who live in distant lands. Yahweh called me as his own before I was born and named me while I was still in my mother’s womb. He gives me words that pierce and penetrate. He hid me and protected me in the shadow of his hand. He prepared me like a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. And he said to me, “Israel, you are my special servant; in you I will be glorified.” I said, “I’ve worked and served for nothing. I have used up all my strength for nothing.” Yet my rights I leave in Yahweh’s hands, and my just reward is with my God. And now the Lord Yahweh — who shaped me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob’s tribes back to him that Israel would be gathered back to him, for I am honored in the sight of Yahweh. I find the source of all my strength in my God — who says: “Is it too small a thing for you, my servant, to restore greatness to Jacob’s tribes and the survivors of Israel? I will make you to be a light to the nations and to bring the light of my salvation to the ends of the earth!”
Yahweh, Israel’s Kinsman-Redeemer and Holy One, says to the one who is deeply despised and repulsed by rulers and a slave to the ruling class: “Kings will see and stand up in respect; princes will bow down to honor the faithfulness of Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
Yahweh says: “When the time of showing you favor has come, I will answer your heart’s cry. I will help you in the day of salvation, for I have fixed my eyes on you. I have made you a covenant people to restore the land and to resettle families on forgotten inheritances. You will declare to prisoners, ‘You’re free!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Step out into the light!’ They will be like sheep that graze beside the roads and find pasture on the barren hillside. They will never be hungry or thirsty. Neither scorching sun nor desert wind will hurt them, for he, the Loving One, will guide them and lead them to restful, renewing streams of water. I will level all my mountains as a road for them and raise up my highways. Look! They will come from faraway lands— some from the north, some from the west, and some from the land of Sinim.”
Sing for joy, you heavens! Shout, you earth, and rejoice with dancing, shouting, and glee! Burst into joyous songs, you mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his beloved people. He will show tenderness and compassion to his suffering ones.
GOD WILL NOT FORGET ZION
But Zion has said, “Yahweh has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me — I’m all alone.”
Yahweh responds, “But how could a loving mother forget her nursing child and not deeply love the one she bore? Even if there is a mother who forgets her child, I could never, no never, forget you. Can’t you see? I have carved your name on the palms of my hands! Your walls are always my concern. Your children, your builders, are running back to you as those who ruined and destroyed you are running away. Lift up your head and look all around you.
See! All your children, your builders, gather to come back to you. As surely as I live, I make this promise,” says Yahweh. “You will wear them all like jewels, as a radiant bride wears her beautiful jewelry! “See? Your ruins and devastated places will soon be overcrowded with settlers while your destroyers stay far away. You thought you had lost the children, but you will hear them say, ‘This place is too cramped for me. Make more room for me to live in.’ And you will say to yourself, ‘Where in the world did all these children come from? Who birthed these for me? I thought I was bereaved and barren. I thought I was all alone, forgotten in exile — so how did they all get here?’ ”
This is what Lord Yahweh says: “Soon I will raise my hand and signal to the nations, and they will come with your little boys bundled in their arms and your little daughters carried on their shoulders. Kings will be their babysitters and queens their nursing mothers. With faces bowed to the ground, they will lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am Yahweh, and I will never disappoint those who entwine their hearts with mine.”
Who can snatch the prey from the hands of a mighty warrior or rescue captives from a conqueror? But Yahweh says: “The prey will be freed from the mighty warrior, and captives will be rescued from a conqueror! For I will fight with those who fight with you, and I myself will save your children. I will cause the violence of your oppressors to come back upon them, and your enemies will kill one another in a killing frenzy! Then all the earth will know that I am Yahweh, your Savior, your Kinsman-Redeemer, the mighty hero of Jacob’s tribes.””
Isaiah 49:1-26 TPT
“LISTEN IN silence before Me, O islands and regions bordering on the sea! And let the people gather and renew their strength [for the argument; let them offer their strongest arguments]! Let them come near, then let them speak; let us come near together for judgment [and decide the point at issue between us concerning the enemy advancing from the east].
Who has roused up one [Cyrus] from the east, whom He calls in righteousness to His service and whom victory meets at every step? He [the Lord] subdues nations before him and makes him ruler over kings. He turns them to dust with the sword [of Cyrus], and to driven straw and chaff with his bow.
He [Cyrus] pursues them and passes safely and unhindered, even by a way his feet had not trod and so swiftly that his feet do not touch the ground.
Who has prepared and done this, calling forth and guiding the destinies of the generations [of the nations] from the beginning? I, the Lord–the first [existing before history began] and with the last [an ever-present, unchanging God]–I am He.
The islands and coastlands have seen and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They draw near and come; They help every one his neighbor and say to his brother [in his tiresome idol making], Be of good courage!
So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths [the metal] with the hammer [encourages] him who smites the anvil, saying of the soldering, That is good! And he fastens it with nails so that it cannot be moved.
But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham My friend,
You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth and have called from the corners of it, and said to you, You are My servant–I have chosen you and not cast you off [even though you are exiled].
Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice. [Acts 18:10.]
Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.
You shall seek those who contend with you but shall not find them; they who war against you shall be as nothing, as nothing at all.
For I the Lord your God hold your right hand; I am the Lord, Who says to you, Fear not; I will help you!
Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument which has teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall make the hills like chaff.
You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest or whirlwind shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord, you shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.
The poor and needy are seeking water when there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the wild olive; I will set the cypress in the desert, the plane [tree] and the pine [tree] together,
That men may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
[You idols made by men's hands, prove your divinity!] Produce your cause [set forth your case], says the Lord. Bring forth your strong proofs, says the King of Jacob.
Let them bring them forth and tell us what is to happen. Let them tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them and know the outcome of them; or declare to us the things to come.
Tell us the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good or do evil [something or other], that we may stare in astonishment and be dismayed as we behold [the miracle] together!
Behold, you [idols] are nothing, and your work is nothing! The worshiper who chooses you is an abomination [extremely disgusting and shamefully vile in God's sight].
I have raised up and impelled to action one from the north [Cyrus], and he comes; from the rising of the sun he calls upon My name [recognizing that his victories have been granted to him by Me]. And he shall tread upon rulers and deputies as upon mortar and as the potter treads clay. [He comes with the suddenness of a comet, but none of the idol oracles of the nations has anticipated it.]
[What idol] has declared this from the beginning, that we could know? And beforetime, that we could say that he is [unquestionably] right? Yes, there is none who declares it, yes, there is none who proclaims it; yes, [for the truth is, O you dumb idols] there is none who hears you speak!
I [the Lord] first gave to Zion the announcement, Behold, [the Jews will be restored to their own land, and the man Cyrus shall be raised up who will deliver them] behold them! And to Jerusalem I gave a herald [Isaiah] bringing the good news.
For I look [upon the heathen prophets and the priests of pagan practices] and there is no man among them [who could predict these events], and among these [idols] there is no counselor who, when I ask of him, can answer a word.
Behold, these [pagan prophets and priests] are all emptiness (falseness and futility)! Their works are worthless; their molten images are empty wind (confusion and waste).”
Isaiah 41:1-29 AMPC
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