Joshua Williams, Professor of Old Testament and Director of Research Doctoral Studies at Southwestern Seminary, preached from the Book of Joel in SWBTS Chapel on September 23, 2025.
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Thank you so much for the opportunity this morning to speak with you. Dr. Dodd, thank you for that very kind introduction to Dr. Dockery for the invitation to preach. To my wife and my son who are here. Thank you. Thank you for showing up this morning. There are lots of places you could be but you’re here, or there are lots of swipes that you could save, and you decided to spend it here this morning, so I appreciate that very much.
In 2004 Tom and Arlette strop, they were vacationing in Cow Lock, Thailand. They were out on the terrace of the hotel when some of the serving staff started to point at the ocean. It was strange, because it was as though someone had taken a vacuum, a huge vacuum, and was sucking out the water of the ocean. The water was receding off of the beach. You could see some of the people who had been swimming or standing there dry. You could see the bottom of the ocean floor there where the seaweed was no longer covered in water, and Tom put two and two together, he realized that the little rumble that they had felt a little bit ago was actually an earthquake, and that it had caused a tsunami.
And at that moment, he looked out on the beach and on the horizon, he could see it water several feet high, traveling at 40 to 50 miles per hour, a tsunami, a tidal wave, and as he grabbed his wife’s hand and they began to run, they began to run, he could hear it, the sound of the waves crashing down, crashing onto the beach, into the sand, into The beach goers, the umbrellas, the chairs, the cars, the walls, the hotels. He could hear the sound of the waves pounding, not stopping, not slowing down, inundating everything. The sound was deafening. The sound was like the sound of chariots as they gallop like war horses. The sound was like the sound of fiery flames consuming stubble like a mighty army deployed for war the waves.
They attacked. As warriors attack. They scaled walls. As men of war do, each going on its own path. They do not change course. They stormed the city. They ran on the wall. They climbed into the house as they entered through the windows, like thieves before the waves, the earth quaked and the sky shook, and the Lord makes his voice heard in the presence of his army. His camp is very large, and those who carry out his command are powerful. Indeed, the day of the Lord is terrible and dreadful. Who can endure it? Am I still talking about the tidal wave? Am I still talking about the tsunami? Well, welcome to the book of Joel.
So, the book of Joel leaves out many of the details about time or occasion. The book seems to switch between different images in reference. In Chapter One of Joel, it describes a locust plague. Verse Two. Hear this. You elders, listen all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors? Tell your children about it and let their children. Let your children tell their children and. Their children, the next generation. What has happened? Well, what the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten, and what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten, and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten. You. Your fathers, yourself, your children, your children’s children. This was the plague of the century. I mean, that’s the way that we would put it. We’re covering several generations. Nothing had ever been seen like this. The land was devastated.
It continues on. Says in verse 10 that the fields are destroyed. The land grieves. Indeed. The grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up and the fresh oil fails, the trees, the vines, the grains, they’re all gone. Everything that a person or an animal would eat, it’s all gone. There’s nothing left, complete and utter devastation. And as a result, the people mourn, they wail, announce a sacred fast and proclaim a solemn assembly verse 14, gather the elders and all the residents of the land at the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the Lord woe because of that day, for the day of the Lord is near and will come as devastation from the Almighty. Hasn’t the food been cut off before our eyes in joy and gladness from the house of our God, the locust plague has come and destroyed everything, and the people are mourning, praying to God that they can survive. But this locust plague is just a shadow of what’s to come notice how it speaks of the day of the Lord.
I like to call the day of the Lord the day when the Lord shows up, or probably better, the way that Pastor Todd pilot put it last week, the day that the Lord acts decisively, and that locust plague in chapter one, it’s much like the day of the Lord that is coming. Look with me in chapter two, let all the residents of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming. In fact, it is near. It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds in total darkness, like the dawn spreading over the mountains, a great and strong people appears such as never existed in ages past and never will again in all the generations to come. There is an army on the horizon. They’re spread out like the dawn in the morning, right? If you look out in the eastern skies, the sun rises. It spreads across the entire horizon. That’s this army, a great and terrible people, and they bring total destruction.
Continue on a fire devours in front of them and behind them, a flame blazes the land in front of them is like the Garden of Eden, luscious, beautiful, flourishing, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland. There is no escape from them. In fact, even the earth quakes before them, verse 10, and the sky shakes. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars cease their shining. The Lord makes his voice heard in the presence of his army. His camp is very large. Those who carry out his command are powerful. Indeed. The day of the Lord is terrible and dreadful. Who can endure it? This is an image of destruction. Now the image is no longer a locust plague. Now it’s a great army that’s coming over the horizon, bounding like the waves, like the waves of a tidal wave that flow into the city, sweeping away everything that’s in their path. You.
This is the day of the Lord, that the day that the Lord arrives. It’s a day that someone would expect when God comes in judgment, in punishment, a day when he would come and judge, you know them, whoever they are. But I left out a little detail the first two lines of the first verse of chapter two. What does it say? Says, blow the ram’s horn in Zion. Sound the alarm on my holy mountain. Zion. What is Zion? Anybody that’s in Jerusalem? What’s there on Zion? That’s the holy mountain of the Lord’s habitation. Now, wait a minute. Are you telling me that the Lord’s army, this great and powerful people, that the Lord’s army is targeting God’s dwelling place? Are you telling me that he’s coming against his own people. No, I’m not telling you that. He’s telling you that Joel is saying, look, there is the day of the Lord is coming, and the Lord is going to judge his own people. Now, is this looking at the past? Is this the locust plague? Is this looking at the future? Is this a literal army?
Is this just metaphorically an army? Is it looking back? Is it looking future? Is it the present? Well, welcome to Joel. Well, here’s one thing we do know. If we look at the history of Israel, God did this? God sent the Babylonians, a great and terrible nation in order to come in to sweep through Judah and to destroy Jerusalem. Estimates are that 60% of the population of Judah died when the Babylonians came. Imagine that split this room right here. Gone. Yes, for those of you who survived, well done. Just like that.
The Lord He did this. But would his destruction last forever? Would God always be angry with his people? The answer is no. In fact, he responded to their cry, a cry that sounds very much like what we find in Joel, chapter two, verse 17, let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, have pity on your people, Lord. Have mercy on your people, Lord, and do not make your inheritance a disgrace, an object of scorn among the nations among the nations, why should it be said among the peoples, where is their God? Indeed? Why should it be said, Where is their God? And indeed, the Lord hears their cry, and he does restore them. Verse 18, and then the Lord became jealous for his land, and he spared his people. The Lord answered his people. Look, I’m about to send you grain, new wine and fresh oil. You will be satiated with them. You will be satisfied and I will no longer make you a disgrace among the nations.
God will restore his people, and when he does, something is going to happen at the same time. Is this? Is this restoration a part of the day of the Lord. I mean, the day of the Lord is the day that he, so far he showed up in destruction. Well, the only way I know to answer that question is to look at the very last mention of the day of the Lord within the book. And this happens, we’ll look at verse 12 of chapter three. Let the nations be roused and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat. That is the valley of the Lord judges. That’s what Jehoshaphat means. You. It for there I will sit down to judge all the surrounding nations. Swing the sickle because the harvest is ripe. Come and trample the grapes because the wine press is full, the wine vats overflow because the wickedness of the nations is extreme, multitudes, multitudes, multitudes of what of the nations?
Multitudes of the nations. Multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near, in the valley of decision, whose decision the Lord’s the Lord is gathering the nations in order to render a verdict. Here is his decision, guilty, and what is the consequence? Destruction. I him. Now this makes sense, if you think about it, if you deliver Israel, the only way you get deliverance is deliverance from something. The deliverance of Israel is deliverance from their enemies. Deliverance restoration and punishment go hand in hand. We’re going to see this throughout the minor prophets. They are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. When God comes on the day of the Lord, He comes to act decisively. He comes to show up. And of course, the question will be, whose side are you on? He will come for those to restore and for those to destroy. And this is the pattern of the book of Joel destruction that leads to restoration and more destruction, the destruction of his people, followed by restoration and the destruction of his enemies.
This is the pattern of God’s activity. And you say, well, when is this? Is this in the past, the future, the present, and I say, welcome to the book of Joel. But there’s, there’s something unusual about Joel, something that’s missing in the book of Joel that we see in all the other prophets, and it’s the answer to the question, Why? Why? Last week, Dr Dodd showed us Hosea, why would Israel, the northern kingdom, experience punishment, judgment, destruction. Because they committed spiritual harlotry, they were worshiping other gods, finding other lovers. As he put it, we don’t find that in Joel. We do find a little bit we know why the nations are judged. The nations are judged, as it puts it in chapter three, verse 19, Egypt will become desolate in Edom, a desert wasteland because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. The nations mistreat God’s people, and therefore God is going to destroy them. He’s going to punish them.
But what about Israel? What about his people? What about Judah? It doesn’t mention their sins at all. There’s one little passage, just a couple of verses. The whole book of Joel hinges on these two verses. They occur in the middle of chapter two, in response to the question, indeed, the day of the Lord is terrible and dreadful. Who can endure it? Who can survive? Who could look at the waves of the tsunami, the locusts that come to destroy the army well equipped, marching down on us. Who can survive? The answer, I mean, nobody, nobody’s going to survive unless maybe you surrender. Look at Joel. Two. It starting in verse 12, even now, says the Lord. CSP says, this is the Lord’s declaration. But it takes a long time to say so. I’m just going to say it says, even now, this is the Lord speaking. Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning, tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. See, here’s the here’s what these verses tell us. They answer the question, why did the plague happen? Why the day of the Lord on His own people? Here’s why? Because they’re guilty of sin. The language that is used here, turn to the Lord. Tear your hearts, return to the Lord. This is the language of repentance. And what is repentance?
Simply put, repentance is turning away from arrogant sin and humbly turning to the Lord, and that’s what we have here. We have repentance, and I want to talk about repentance for a minute. First, let’s talk about the significance of repentance. Notice that everything before this verse, when it comes to God’s people, is destruction, all of chapter one, destruction, nothing is left gone. Devastation, no one can survive. Chapter Two, the Lord’s army is on the march the Garden of Eden in front of them, but once they pass through wasteland, and in these verses, everything flips. You go from destruction of God’s people to restoration, restoration and blessing. He restores that what has been lost. He pays it back. So the significance of repentance. It’s the hinge upon which the entire book hangs. It’s the difference between two different faiths, destruction on the one hand, restoration and blessing on the other. If I could paint the pattern of God’s activity here that we find in the book of Joel, it’s punishment, repentance, restoration and punishment of the enemies.
So when it comes to God’s people, punishment, repentance, restoration, or if you prefer alliteration, there’s reckoning, repentance and restoration. That’s the pattern. And you know what? This isn’t just the pattern in Joel. In fact, this is the pattern that we see throughout the Old Testament regarding God’s punishment of exile and the restoration. If you want to see a couple of examples, I would invite you to look at Daniel nine, where Daniel prays in confession before the Lord for the sins of His people. And Ezra nine, where the people all come together and do the same they recount the history of Israel, focusing in on their sins. So there’s the significance of repentance changes everything. Actually, there are also the signs of repentance, right? There are external signs and internal signs. Let’s start with the external. Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning, tear your hearts, and not just your clothes.
These external signs I give you three, fasting, weeping and mourning. The fourth is the tearing of the clothes, may I ask you a question I’m going to anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you answer. You ever repented like that? I mean really, you ever find yourself on your face before God broken? Can’t hold back to tears. You wail. Did you mourn? Did you. Weep because you know your sin, because you know there is no hope. Have you ever repented like that? These external signs, they’re there. I’m telling you, I’m begging you, man, I can remember being on my face. I remember as a young man, being on my face and crying out to God for mercy. I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t hold back the tears, slobbering, snotty like a kid. I it. Have we seen it? Have you ever seen repentance like that? You ever been in a church service where somebody got down on their knees and they begged God for mercy? Have you man I pray so. I pray that you have and if you haven’t, I invite you the same invitation that the Lord gives I give you turn to me even now, repent. But it’s not just the external, there’s the internal. Tear your hearts. What does it mean to tear your heart? What does this look like? You ever seen somebody broken because they got caught?
I mean, nowadays what we do is we say, I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. Hey, we got you embezzling money. I didn’t do it. Wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. Everybody just denies it. We just deny it, and who knows what to believe anymore. This is the difference between real repentance. See, there are people that are sorry that got caught, and then there are people that are broken on the inside. But I mean, how do you know? How do you know? How do you know, if you ever had a time where you got caught doing something, you felt conviction, little bit of conviction, you’re like, Ah, really shouldn’t have done that. You know consequences are coming. So you say, I’m really sorry, I’m really sorry, but the truth is, you know you’re going to do it again. The truth is, you haven’t done anything to change, leading yourself down the same paths to the same temptations. What do you think is going to happen if nothing changes? Nothing changes. Here’s the way you can tell if you don’t want anybody else to know you’re not repenting, and I don’t mean like you’re okay.
If somebody knows like, I’ll tell my I’ll tell my friend, maybe I’ll tell a few friends and they can know about my sin. But would you please not tell anybody else? I don’t really want anybody else to know. You see, at that point, the heart’s not torn. You’re still too worried about your reputation. You’re still too worried people are going to think you’re a bad Christian. You’re still too worried they’re going to know exactly what you are, what you have done. And if that is your concern, that’s not repentance. Repentance is humiliating. Repentance is when you say, God, I don’t care. Who knows. I’m not going to do it anymore. I turn away from it, I am turning to you and you only. Those are the signs of repentance. But let me ask one more thing about repentance, and that’s the rationale for repentance. Man, praise the Lord. This is not the only thing that is said, Look with me in the middle of verse 13, return to the Lord your God. Why? What sense does it make?
Because He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and he relents from sending disaster. Who knows he may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind me, behind him, so that you can offer grain offering and a drink offering to the Lord your God. It’s. You know what? If there’s no chance of forgiveness, I’m not sure that repentance is worth the cost. Like I said, it’s It’s humiliating. It’s humiliating to confess that the same silly, stupid sins that capture the world have caught you too. It’s embarrassing to admit to yourself, but to admit to others is humiliating you. But it’s worth it, and here’s why, because God is gracious, because he’s compassionate, because he’s slow to anger. He waits, he waits and he waits and he waits and he relents from sending disaster. But lest you think he’s a puppet or some kind of vending machine, he is not obligated to act in any way, to respond in any way, just because you act a certain way.
That’s why Joel says, who knows, maybe he will leave behind a blessing. He’s free to do as he wishes. But here’s the good news, the pattern of the Old Testament is the pattern of the Bible overall, is that when you repent, he does restore so we’ve got the significance of repentance, the signs of repentance and the rationale for repentance. We’ve seen the pattern of punishment, repentance, restoration. But how I mean this makes sense in the Old Testament. I’ve already given you an example. Given you an example, right?
The people, they sin. God brings them into exile. He brings the Babylonians that go into exile, and then the Lord restores them. He brings them back to the land. Kind of makes sense. They look forward to future restoration. How does this apply to a Christian? What is it? What does a Christian need this for repentance? I mean, after all, Romans, 81 therefore there exists no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus, Amen, Amen, praise the Lord. That is good news. But I remember sitting in my my apartment as a seminary student, and I came across this passage of Scripture. This passage of Scripture, it’s not written to the lost. It’s not written to the pagans. It’s written to believers, listen to what it says. Hebrews 10 verse 26 for if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.
Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy, based on the testimony of two or three witnesses, how much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane, the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace. How much more? I’m guessing, a lot more for we know the one who has said, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, and again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and I remember reading this passage of Scripture as a seminary student and being terrified. Could I trample the Son of God? Could I treat as something common, the blood of the covenant? Could I insult scorn the spirit of grace? Now I know the context of this passage is talking about the sacrifice of Christ, the offer, the offering, the fact that the blood of animals doesn’t cleanse. And I know there are debates about these warning passages of Hebrews hypothetical. Maybe they’re real, but they can’t they won’t happen. Let me tell you something, if you’re the. Psychology encourages you to sin and doesn’t make you terrified to do it. I’m guessing you’re wrong. I don’t know how to reconcile Exactly.
Romans 81 and Hebrews 10. I don’t care. I don’t ever want to find out. I don’t ever want to find out if I can trample underfoot Son of God. I don’t ever want to find out if I can scorn the spirit of grace. I don’t want to know it’s terrifying to fall into the hands of the living God, but that’s just Christians in general. What about us here? Man, I’m talking to TBC, southwestern seminary, the next generation of pastors and leaders. Why in the world do I need to talk about repentance? What does repentance have to do with any of us. Let me tell you something. If you think you are immune to temptation or sin, you’re wrong. And I hesitate to do this, because these are real people, and I am not interested in gossiping. I’m not interested in anything else, but I want to give you some examples. I’m not going to use names, because I think it’s a warning to us all. How does a Baptist theologian get so caught up in sexual sin that he kills himself. How does an Old Testament scholar get so caught up in child pornography that he’s arrested, sits in jail? How is it that a pastor gets so drunk that the ambulance has to come because he almost dies of alcohol poisoning. How is it that a denominational leader carries on an adulterous relationship for almost a decade? How is it that an evangelist finds himself on the corner purchasing prostitutes? How is it that in seminary housing there are wife swaps? How does that happen? Is it real? I guarantee you, I know it is. How does it happen?
I tell you how it happens. And no repentance. You know, my wife and I, when our kids were young, we would pray all the time. We still do. God, let there be no secret sin, not sin, but every time they sin, let somebody know it. It’s actually hard to pray that prayer. It’s hard to pray a prayer to say, Lord, when I fail, Lord when I sin, when I do that which is displeasing. I want people to know. What does it have to do with a community like this? Man has everything I’m telling you, secret sin will entangle you. It will hold you captive and it will destroy you. So what do we do? What do we do? Two things. Number one, repent. I am begging you. I am begging you. I know some of you, you are held captive today. We like to call them addictions. Bible doesn’t know anything about addictions. It knows about sin, and you’re stuck in it. You’re caught, you’re trapped, and you don’t want anybody to know. Repent. The second thing is restore.
Listen to me. If you think it can’t happen to you, it can. And if you see somebody who fails, man, don’t give me this. Well, that’s what happens to those people, right? Or, you know, it’s just a matter of time if you’re something else, if you’re one of these kinds of people, that’s just going to happen. Oh, those big time pastors, you know, probably didn’t belong there anyway. You. Like there’s something inherently broken in a person. I mean those people, I tell you, the same brokenness, the same peace that’s marred and bent in those who fall is found right here in our hearts. We all have it. And so when someone confesses, when someone repents, we need to have an atmosphere of restoration, where we keep our mouths shut. We don’t go walking around saying, Did you hear what someone says? Well, I can’t believe they did that. Who could imagine that a pastor could do X? I can, I can imagine I can do X. I And so this morning, I’ll close with the story of Tom and Arlette. We started with them. They were on the beach, remember? And Tom put two and two together. He saw the wave on the horizon. You want to know what he did? He ran. He ran away to higher ground.
Listen, this is a warning. The book of Joel gives a warning. Here’s the response, run, run. Don’t be too late. Don’t wait for the weight of sin to come crashing into your chest, but turn and run. Amen
