Joel

Joel 1:1-3

Joel's message was spoken from Jerusalem and spoken to Judah.   He called for the elders to listen; they needed to bring this message to all the people.  He is talking to the elders at the gate, the scholars, the judges, the men of wisdom.  They would hear this messsage and agree that nothing like this had ever happened before.  Where the normal response of an elder might be stories of old; accounts of times when similar things had happened.  These men would give testimony of the importance and uniqueness of what was about to happen.  Because of this, the message should be handed down from generation to generation.  This is very reminiscent of Deuteronomy 6:5 – the shema.

When God speaks to His people, it is a word that is wise and timeless.  Because it is from God it is an eternal word, full of wisdom and authority.  His word represents Him, reflecting who He is.  The word of God is living and active; it is as true today as it was when spoken and delivered by God.  When God speaks to us, His word is worthy of our undivided attention. 

Joel 1:4

As this prophecy begins, we might see this as a picture of the earth from outer space.  The earth is a brilliant globe and as we move closer we begin to see masses of land and bodies of water.  Then closer and closer, we zoom in on the land of Israel; suddenly the vived colors of life fade; they are replaced with bland, brown lifeless colors of destruction.  It looks as though swarms of locust are moving across the land.  The sky is dark and the swarms blot out the light.  The first wave strips the land, the next wave mows it flat and the final wave gets anything the first two waves missed.  It's devastation!  Nothing is left.

Locusts are sometimes called the "incarnation of hunger".  A locust plague can cause devastation in a large area.  In 1915 a plague of locusts covered modern day Israel and Syria.  The clouds of locusts blocked out the sun.  In the first waves of of locusts the females land and lay their eggs.  They lay 100 at a time.  It is said that in one square yard there were sixty-five to seventy-five thousand eggs; this went on yard after yard, mile after mile across the countryside.  In just a few weeks these eggs begin to hatch.  These baby locusts resemble ants that hop along the crowd eating anything and everything.  They could advance at five hundred feet a day like an army eating anythign edible.  These baby locusts passed through two more stages of life before becoming adult locusts that could fly and also lay eggs. 

There are 4 types of locust described in verse four:

• Gnawing – In KJV this is the palmerworm.
• Swarming – he eats what the gnawing locust leaves – in KJV this is the locust.
• Creeping – he eats what the swarming locust leaves – in KJV this is the cankerworm.
• Stripping – he eats what the creeping locust leaves – in KJV this is the caterpillar.

This could also be the 4 different stages of a locust or four different kinds.  There is no real way of knowing, what we are to know was this was very real and happening at that time.  This destructive event was to be noted and talked about; the old men would tell the next generation that they lived through this time; they saw it happen. 

Joel 1:5-7

The first to notice the damage from the locusts and be affected by it were the drunkards.  This might be a little glimpse into the life and times of these people.  The locusts were real and the damage was real; therefore, I would assume the characterization of the people as drunkards is equally real.  While they might think life was a party, Joel is saying the "Wake up!  The party's over."  The drunkards would weep and wail because there would be nothing to make any wine!  Anything growing would be eaten to a nub on the ground. 

Suddenly in verse 6 there is a switch; the beginning of a transition.  Its as if, from our aerial view, we zoomed in even close and realized this wasn't a swarm of locusts at all, but it was a nation; an invading army!  We should not whose land this nation comes against; it's 'My land' God said.  Suddenly, it appears the locust represent an invasion. 

Many see the locust devastation equal to an invading army.  Locusts actually do have teeth like lions.  See also Revelation 9; Amos 7:1; Isaiah 30:6; Proverbs 30:27 and Hosea 13:8.   The vision of that immediate judgment from the locusts begins to give way to an immenant Day of the Lord; and then point to an ultimate Day of the Lord.

In this transition we see the locusts as an army; the weapons of this army are the teeth like a fierce lion.  A locust can eat its own weight in food every day.  Think about that.  A swarm of locusts can eat the same amount of food as 35,000 adult people.  The jaws and teeth of a lion are frightening in strength and ability to deliver a crushing bite.  The jaws of the locust are no less impressive – fierce in the cumulative damage from the shear number of mouths.

God says they have laid His vine to waste and His fig tree has been stripped bare.  This vine and fig tree may well represent the house of Israel and house of Judah.  All through the bible we can see the vine and the fig tree are also symbols of prosperity.  When they are bearing fruit things are well in the land.  In judgment, the vine is stripped bare, it is useless and cast aside.  The fig tree is stripped of all its fruit, leaves and bark; leaving only a bare, white branch.

Hosea 9:10

Israel is seen as a fruitful grape vine and productive fig tree.  After they depart from the ways of the Lord, they no longer bear no fruit.  They no longer are found useful and verse seventeen of the same chapter said they would be cast away. 

Joel 1:8

This is the young bride mourning for her dead bridegroom.  It is symbolic of deep grief, hopelessness and loss.  Joel is calling for lamentation.  They needed to see this for what it was.  This wasn't a brief spell of discomfort or bad luck; this was judgment.

Joel 1:9

Every aspect of life would be affected; from the drunkard to the temple.  Things were so bad even the grain and drink offering could no longer be offered.  These things were symbolic of God's blessing and provision for the people.  The absence of the symbols was seen as the absence of the blessing and provision; God's hand was against them.  This brought the priests to mourning.

During the reign of wicked queen Athaliah, she allowed the temple to continue its religious ceremonies.  Yet, she led the people far from God.  She honored Baal and promoted Baal worship.  It was better that this meaningless religious practice end because it served no purpose in regards to their relationship with the Lord.

Joel 1:10-12

The vine dried up, fig withered, the pamegranate, palm, apple and all the other trees withered.  All were demolished by this plague.  It's as if their joy were like another tree or plant that the locust army stripped bare.  Their joy was gone, whitheed away also.  The rejoicing had dried up.  Their joy wasn't tied to anything but their prosperity.

Joel 1:13-15

The priests were gird themselves and lament.  To 'gird up' was a preparation to work, to run, to accomplish somehting.  It was tying up your garment so it didn't tangle in your feet as you ran.  The priests were to prepare; take care of any lose ends or anything that could interfere.  There was nothing more important than the matter at hand.  That matter was repentance.  They were to wail and lie in sackcloth as a symbol of the grief and mourning of their situation.  But grief and mourning can be over circumstances or it can be that the circumstances lead to true repentance.  True repentance and mourning over sin is what God wanted.  They needed to run back to Him.

They were to call of a fast.  It's fascinating that the Lord called the people to feasting when they were obedient to Him.  They celebrated their God and His provision for their life in great feasts.  In repentance, man is left fasting.  It was easy to fast when there was no food.  The message of the fast was that seeking God was more important than eating.  Without God, they might as well not eat.  They were to call the elders and all the people.  They needed a national repentance; everyone needed to come before the presence of God in repentance and mourning.  They needed to cry out to the Lord.

Joel 1:15-20

'Alas for the day' is a cry of distress.  It is the realization that comes from deep in a man when he realizes he cannot control the circumstances.  He is simply caught out in the storms of judgment with no protection.  There will be intervention by another; no other government can intervene and come to the rescue.  The red cross won't arrive any minute and make all things better.  The weight of all that is happening is overwhelming to mankind.  The weight itself testifies this is near mear run of bad luck, no natural occurrence or bad luck.  This comes from the hand of God.

The Day of the Lord is at hand.

It was man's day when God sent His word into the land.  It was man's day when the prophets spoke to all the world.  It was man's day when his governments made laws and chose kings & leaders.  It was man's day when believe in God was a choice and the response to that belief was a choice.  But the Day of the Lord is God's day.  This is the time when God intervenes; when He inserts himself into man's time. 

In This Day man will see the authority and power of Almighty God.  In Joel's time we see the immediate Day of the Lord.  The food is cut off.  One day everything was fine; there were crops in the field and fruit on the trees.  The next day it is gone; consumed by the locusts of judgment.

Joy & gladness are gone from the house of the Lord.  Was their joy and gladness only based on prosperity?  Were they only able to find joy in the abundance and wealth?  Were they trusting in the crops of one who allowed them to grow?  In the days when their storehouses and barnse were full did they see these things as blessings from God?  Things bestowed and not owed?  Now there is no grain; gone, how could this happen so quickly? 

Every aspect of life is affected.  Finding another source of food and relief from the threat of hunger only clarified the all encompassing distress of that day.  They would find no hope or respite from the sting of judgment in their strength and by their power.  Even the flocks and all the animals are feeling the affects of punishment.

In verse nineteen we see the only respite, the only hope.  There must be a crying out to the Lord.  In the past, the Lord had seen this crying out was only a cry of grief over the circumstances.  A people who wanted life on their terms were upset and disappointed; they cried out to God like spoiled children who wanted 'life on their terms' restored to them.  But God sees the heart; He knows the heart behind the cry. 

As Joel looks closer at this immediate day, it's not just locusts, but an army.  It's as if he is beginning to look past this day, a day and time like they had never see, towards another day.  This immediate day would be talked about, mankind would survive it.  The memory of it was to be passed along to the children.  Part of the message of this immediate day was that as bad as this day is there is a time coming that will be worse.

This vision of locust stripping the land, begins to look like an army.  The devastation begins to look like fire has swept the land.  The vision transitions to a post apocalyptic view of a land scorched by the fires of judgment.  The devastation is not just local; it's doesn't just affect a few.  The devastation is all encompassing of the created and the creation. 

The immediate Day of the Lord was a call to repentance.  It, in a sense says, repent for the end is near!!  Judgment is immenent, it cannot be avoided.  Justice is due and mankind cannot work their way through this as a difficult season of their existence. 

The timing is God's; time is short. 

Mankind shouts, "All is lost" in the immediate day; it's a day of warning; of God's interventiont to give mankind a local taste of what that coming day will be like.  It was big and ugly but it was still local and duration was short.

Again the shout "All will be lost" in the immenent day.  For the folks in Joel's time, repentance was a must.  The nation needed to turn from its wicked ways because judgment was coming.  The nation would be judged by God; the nations destroyed and the people carried off to exile.  Must we experience devastation to finally repent?  Must these people be carried off to another land before they paid attention?  The devastation was larger, more widespread and the duration longer in this immenent day.

Then in the ultimate Day of the Lord, the only things saved will those in Christ.  Our hope is found in nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.  The devastation will be complete; the end of time will be marked by this day.  The duration of this time marks the ushering in of the millenial kingdom.  It is in that day that our perfect King, perfect Priest and perfect Prophet sits on the throne of David and rules in righteousness.

Maranatha!  Come Quickly Lord Jesus!

©2016 Doug Ford