"Woe Unto You"

[Openly Curious]

Joel 2:1 (latter part of verse)--"for the day of the Lord cometh for it is nigh at hand"

Amos 5:18--"Woe unto you that "desire" the day of the Lord to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light."

There are somethings I've been studying in my Christian walk and it is these two scriptures above that I want to use as a spring board to this thread. Plus it will keep my mind off my troubles not being idle. So I hope it will be to your benefit as I share with you.

The day of the Lord is a topic we all are familiar with but in my personal studies I have found some truths that make me stop and say Woe is me. I can't speak for others but I do "desire" the day of the Lord to come even so come quickly Lord Jesus as I'm sure others are likeminded.

But in Amos 5:18--it asks those of us with this desire for the Lord's return a question regarding it. It gives us heed to take caution towards it and understand more in depth the things concerning it as it says that it will be darkness and not light.

And there are many who want Jesus to return as I do but as I ponder things in my own life and in what I see in the world around me I see people who have not prepared their vessels against this day and will not be caught up in the clouds when the voice of the arch angel Gabriel sounds. And they will find themselves caught in a time period like there never has been before on this earth nor ever will be again. A time of Jacob's trouble. A day of darkness and of gloominess of clouds and thick darkness."

Joel 2:2--it says of the sudden day of the Lord that it was going to be a day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness. And the sudden return of the Lord is not going to be a happy occasion for those in the world but for only those who are prepared and ready when he comes in the clouds.

Now the book of Joel speaks about and army of locust that had came upon the farmlands and devoured everything and the prophet causes the people to look back over their past and remember things then he calls them to repentance and speaks of the promises of the spirit being poured out and how salvation will come to all the earth as that prophesy was two- fold. Then the prophet Joel begins to prophesy future events of the coming of the Lord and he speaks about an army of locust that was going to come in the future just as it had come upon their farmlands in that day and devoured everything and it is this army of locust in the future that I want to talk about in this thread.

For in Revelation it speaks of such an army of locust that is going to come up out of the pit so I want to try to tie these two together if the Lord would help keep my mind clear to do so. I will be posting futher in this.

The army of Joel's prophesy vs The army of locust in Revelation chapter 9 these are all my notes from my own personal studies I will be taken from and sharing with you. I will be starting with Joel's army first then move on to the army in Revelation.

[Openly Curious]

Okay I want to give us a preview of what it will be like for those who are unprepared against the day of the Lord. As this will be in the prophetic tone.

In Joel 2:2 in the middle part of that verse you'll see that it says, "a great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them and behind them a flame burneth the land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so shal they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much painedall faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men they shall climb the wall like men of war and they shall march everyone on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. Neither shall one thrust another they shall walk every one in his path and when they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded. they shall run to and fro in the city they shall run upon the wall they shall climb up upin the houses they shall enter in at the windows like a theif the earth shall quake before them the heavens shall tremble the sun and the moon shall be dark and the stars shall withdraw their shinning------------------And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army for his camp is very great for he is strong that executh his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it?

[Brandli5]

Very nice study here. I am going to keep reading your posts. Very good study.

[Openly Curious]

Now this great people was in that time in history Babylon represented by the "lion" they had come and marched on the southern kingdom Judah as was marched off into captivity to the babylonians as Ezekiel and Daniel the prophets was among them at the time. But Babylon totally defeated them and burned Jerusalem totally devasted them as Jeremiah had warned them to repent and turn but they did not listen and Jeremiah was heart broken to say the least as you can read in the book of Lamentations.

It said in Joel 1:6--"For a nation is come up upon my land, strong and without number , whose teeth are thee teeth of a great lion."

You can see that this nation of Babylon is being described and represented as having the teeth of a great lion as it swallows up and devoured Jerusalem and the nation of Judah.

As Joel is prophesying in chapter 2 of another invading army to com in the future and he says things describing this future invading army here in verse 2 that here hasn't ever been nobody like this people in the army here before or after them ever.

In verse 3 Joel said that a fire destroyed or devoured everything out in front of them as a flame burned behind them. as the garden of Eden. simply meaning this flame of fire that destroyed everthing in front of em and behind was like the flaming sword back in Genesis 3:24 that the cherubins used that God placed at the east gate of the garden to keep Adam from getting back into the garden when God drove him out. The cherubim had a flaming sword which turned every way if you'll recall and that's what the fire was doing here before and behind them.as nothing escaped them.

[Guest jckduboise]

Who can abide it? Not one no not one..they will hide in hopes of not being seen but judgement will still fall and those who have not turned their backs will suffer judgement so terrible that there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth before they ever reach the mouth gates of hell.

[Openly Curious]

In verse 4 Joel said this army had the appearance of horses as they also run like horses do. In verse 5 Joel said they sounded like chariots when they leaped and sounded like a fire does when you burn stubble a popping and crackling kind of sound as they were set in battle array.

Joel said in verse 6 the people who saw this invading army that the peoples face would show the pain and anguish of heart as any hope of victory over them would be gone for it would be a day of darkness and gloominess

In verse 7 you see that Joel says they'll run like mighty men and climb the wall like me of war would do and then in the latter part of verse 7 Joel says of this invading army that they would march every one on his ways simply meaning this invading army was taking the people prisoner and forcing everyone to go the the place they were forced to go by this invading army as they stand in their ranks advancing across the land.

In verse 8 you can see that each one of these people stayed out of the path of the other ones. And when they got hit or wounded by a sword they couldn't be wounded at all you couldn't even hurt this invading army here. And they were moving and going through climbing up houses and entering in windows like a theif gathering everybody up.

In verse 10 it said the entire earth quaked before this invading army here and the heavens trembled and the sun and moon was darkened as the stars stopped shinning.

[Openly Curious]

Now I have never heard of in the past of any army like has been described to us here have you?

Now after the church has been caught up to be with the Lord the 7 year tribulation period will begin at that point in time. As the things recorded in the book of Revelation will be coming to pass as God's wrath will come on this world.

In the book of Revelation in chapter 8:2 you can read where the seven angels which stood around the throne were given 7 trumpets and in that same chapter 8:6 you'll see that these 7 angels that had these 7 trumpets all prepared themselves to sound their trumpet.

As this is the 7 trump judgments that are going to come on the face of the earth and i do want to run through them briefly so our understanding will open up more as we move along.

Revelation 8:7--is the first trump judgment as the first angel sounded the trumpet in which was given by God And this judgment included hail and fire that was mingled with blood as a third part of the trees in the earth will be burnt up along with the grass

Revelation 8:8--the second angel will blow his trumpet and in this second trump judgment a great big ball of fire as a great mountain it says was cast into the sea as a third part of the sea became as blood as a third of the marine life will be destroyed and the third part of the ships that were in the sea at that time would be destroyed as this great ball of fire the size of a big mountain was thrown into the sea.

Revelation 8:10--The third angel came forth to sound his trumpet and in this third trump judgment a great star from heaven fell as a burning lamp and this great star was called wormwood as the third part of all the rivers and fountains of waters became deadly to drink of as there will be many that will die drinking from this third part of water that has been poisoned by this star called wormwood.

Revelation 8:12--the 4th angel comes to sound his trumpet and in this 4th trump judgment a third of the sun and moon and stars was struck to where a third part of all of themwas put out a third of their light was darkened as during the day they'll be a third less of daylight and at night it would be a third less darker than it originally was before because a third of the moon and stars will not be their to give their light at night as they had been smitten (As we have seen in Joel a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness)

I am going to skip over the 5th trump judgment because I am going to come back to it and eloborate on this 5th trump judgment as I move into Revelation 9:1-11 so stay with me.

[Openly Curious]

In Revelation 9:13--You see the 6th trump judgment as this angel sounds his trumpet in the earth and four angels are loosed which are bound up in the river of Euphrates and these four angels will prepare for the space of only one hour and a day and a month and a year. which is approximately 13 months and 25 hours. And during this preparation time they stir up the nations that are east of the Euphrates river which I don't have time to eloborate and show you all of this in this thread but this 6th trump judgment here the armies they stirred up began to slay or kill a third part of men on the earth as a third of mankind will be killed os John the Revelator had seen in his vision here after that he heard the number of this great army being two hundred thousand thousand in number in verse 16 which is 200 million in number

John in verse 17 saw the horses in this vision of this army and them that sat on them as he begins to describe to us what 3 of those angel's looked liked that had been loosed and you can see in the first part of verse 18 John says "By these three" letting us know it was 3 of those angels here controling these 200 million in this army.

John in verse 17 again said, "and them that sat on them had breastplate of fire and of jacinth and brimestone meaning one angel had a breatplate of fire one had a breastplate of jacinth and the other one had a breastplate of brimestone.

the heads of the angels horses they were on had the heads of these angels horses they were on had the heads of lions and out of their mouths came fire smoke and brimestone.

And by these 3 angels that were over and controling the 200 million in the army of horsemen they killed a third part of mankind by fire, by the smoke and the brimestone that came out of their mouths. As their power was in their mouths and int their tails and you can see in verse 19 that their tails were like serpents tails that had heads also

Now this is very sad after all we have seen thus far you can read in verses 20-21 of chapter 9 that all the people of the earth that were not killed by all these plagues it says they repented not of the works of their hands that they wouldn't stop worshipping devils, and idols of gold and silver and of brass and stone and wood that could neither see nor hear nor walk.

They wouldn't repent and turn thir hearts to God as his wrath was being made manifest in this earth they still refused.

[Openly Curious]

Now briefly I want to talk about a few things in chapter 11

Revelation 11:15--you see the 7th angel and as this angel sounds his trumpet their is going to be voices coming out of the heavens declaring that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ (Praise God) as Christ will reign for ever and ever.

As the prophet Daniel 2:44 said and prophesied=="And in those days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand "Forever"

And this is what is happening in this 7th trump judgment Christ comes and takes his rightful place and possesion as the King of kings and Lord of lords over the kingdoms of this world. Christ sets up his kingdom. And is ready to judge the nations of the world as you can see in verse 18 of chapter 11 that the nations were angry because God's wrath had come on the world as it was now time for the books to be open and if you can read further in Daniel chapter 7

I want for us to see this more clearer what is going on in this last and 7th trump judgment and show us who the little horn of Daniel chapter 7 is just quickly as it also will help open our minds.

[Christ's Free Servant]

My commentary in my NIV Study Bible says this of Amos 5:18: "day of the LORD. The time when God will show himself the victor over the world, vindicating his claims to be the Lord over all the earth. Israel expected to be exalted as his people and longed for that day to come. Amos warned that the day would come, but not as Israel expected - it would be a day of "darkness, not light" for her, because she had not been faithful to God. Amos speaks primarily of an imminent and decisive judgment on Israel, not exclusively of the last day."

I, personally, believe this can apply to America, of whom so many believers are longing for the "rapture" of the Church. Perhaps what they are expecting to come will not come as they expected. Perhaps there is an "imminent and decisive judgment" coming to America that is not exclusive to the last day, but will preceed the last day of the final judgment of God and will preceed the second coming of Christ. So, in longing for the "day of the Lord," we must be warned that it is not going to come to us as we expect - raptured to heaven to be with our Lord, but rather it is going to come as a day of "darkness, not light," as an "imminent and decisive judgment." We are going to get this judgment of God, because of our unfaithfulness to God, i.e. we are "lukewarm" or have "lost our first love." Basically, the Church is apostate - it is living in adultery and is following after other gods - the gods of our stomachs; the gods we have made with our own hands, etc.