Welcome to part two of Dr. Aaron Shady, the books of Hosea and Joel.

Thank you mentioned the book of Hosea is kind of a book to be felt and I was looking at the first part of the come follow me manual that says

Israel's covenant with the Lord was meant to be so deep and meaningful that the Lord compared it to a marriage.

The covenant like a marriage included eternal commitment shared experiences building a life together exclusive loyalty and most of all wholehearted love.

This kind of devotion came with high expectations and tragic consequences for infidelity through the prophet Hosea God describes some of the consequences the Israelites faced for breaking their covenant.

I mean there's strong wonderful feelings and some really tragic feelings to there and Aaron mentioned that Jeremiah 31 is quoted to Joseph Smith and I think one of the first things I thought of when we were going to look at the book of Joel is that Marona I talked about Joel to Joseph Smith as well.

And that's what we're going to look at now is the book of Joel. Let's see the whole book of Joel.

The whole thing I mean it's a whole which is the whole how many chapters all three chapters of Joel.

All right so Aaron how do you want to approach Joel about the same way we we did with Hosea just kind of give us some background and then maybe jump into those verses where you show us how amazing this is sure you bet.

What's the background what do I need to know going into Joel we just finished Hosea so now it's time to leave the easy part and get to the hard part.

It's got really an apocalyptic feel to the book. I think an important part of it is also to look at it and realize that this may not be sort of stagnant in one particular place in one particular time and that it seems to represent a composite of several different time periods that lead us up to one all of these different phases of pies and lows,

distractions, victories, losses that eventually culminate with the coming of the Redeemer who will put an end to all of the wars and contention.

And so for Joel it's tough to try and pinpoint a historical point in time because we just don't know that much about him as a person.

And yet the first couple of verses that just says here you old men and give ear all you inhabitants of the land at this been in your days or even in the days of your fathers tell you your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children another generation.

And so you just sort of get the impression that at the very get go that this is about a series of events that is going to take place over a very long time.

So there are lots of different references in the book most of the references to Judah outnumber those of Israel but there is a reference to Israel and some have used that to indicate that maybe this is after 722 when the kingdom of Israel is already destroyed.

So again it's hard to pinpoint a lot of the focus is the kingdom of Judah but ultimately that's kind of how the book begins with verse 4 this comparison with the Palmer worm.

And so approaching the book sort of invites us to take a look at history from ancient times to future times that will eventually lead us to a paradigm of one who will come in power and redeem.

And ultimately take charge of everything that has seemed so chaotic throughout the world's history.

You use the term apocalyptic for our listeners who don't know exactly what that is. Can you explain that to them?

So it's just again referring to end of day scenarios because oftentimes individual scholars who are looking at the book of Joel will try and pinpoint a specific place and time for things to happen.

And yet this seems to invite us into a broader range than just one particular point but lead us all the way into a period of time that does talk about the end of days type of scenario and that's going to be ushered in in the book of Joel with the figure of the Messiah the Redeemer who comes in power and in a way that nobody can really compete with.

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