#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Teacher For Righteousness
Joel 2 Though he did great things, 21don’t be afraid, 0 land; be glad and rejoice because the LORD will do great things. 22Don’t be afraid, you wild animals, because the open pasture land will turn green, the trees will bear their fruit, and the fig trees and vines will give their full yield. 23Be delighted, people of Zion, and happy in the LORD your God because the LORD will give you the Teacher for righteousness, but first He will let rain fall on you, the fall and the spring rain.
The great things mentioned here are the plague of the locusts, the drought, the fire, and the invading army which devastated the land. While I will disagree with some fellow Christians who when they see a number of disasters, “This is it. Jesus is really coming soon,” I mean, Jesus is always coming soon. We should expect Him at any moment. All the signs are here. They don’t catch on that they are being called to repentance. And the unbelievers around also don’t see them as signs to repent before it is too late.
But the plagues did their job of the law here. They had brought God’s people to repentance. So now the LORD turns to them with what He wanted to do all the time, to bless the land and bless the people of the land. He calls the land to rejoice because of what the LORD will do for it, green pastures, fruitful trees and lots and lots of wine. Even the wild animals will rejoice when the LORD blesses the land.
Now the prophecy points forward in time a bit. Let’s say Joel was written no later than when the Greeks controlled the land. So we still have some time for verse 23ff to be fulfilled. I think we can also take verse 21 and 22 as the New Earth prophecy as well. Well what is happening here? The LORD is calling on the people of Zion to be delighted and happy in the LORD. How come? He is sending to them the Teacher for righteousness. Now, here’s where the Hebrew language makes things interesting. The Hebrew word for “teacher” here can also mean autumn (fall) rain. However, then He says He let rain fall, autumn and spring rain. So it makes little sense for the first autumn/Teacher word to autumn. If it were autumn then it would read autumn rain at the right time.
But since I believe based on interpretive principle given us by Jesus in Luke 24, 44“While I was still with you, I told you that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must come true,” if we can find Jesus in the Old Testament, we are correct. Here we find Jesus, the “Teacher for righteousness.” He teaches us what righteousness truly looks like in His sermon on the mount. He teaches us what God’s righteousness is like on the cross. Jesus has taught us how we may attaign righteousness, the righteousness of God, but putting our faith in Him. The fall and spring rains which are prophesied here then refer the restoration of creation at His second coming when He restores all things. We look around us and see a creation gone awry. People want to blame man-made global warming. Well, certainly our sins are calling for the wrath of God to come upon us through nature. When we see these things we should repent of our sins and the sin of our nation and seek the LORD’s forgiveness and grace to do better. Most importantly, we need to turn to Jesus for His righteousness so we may be able to escape the coming wrath of God.
Heavenly Father, give us ears to hear our Teacher for righteousness, Jesus Christ, so we may rightly repent of sins and look to Jesus alone for righteousness that avails before Your throne. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.