1. Joel: Introduction           2. Joel: Outline

3. Joel: 1:1-12           4. Joel: 1:13-14         5. Joel: 1:15-20

Vs.16-18 Not only has all the food been destroyed but all the gain and even the pastures. The animals that could be used in sacrifices to God are suffering along with the people. Fasting and prayer are the only rituals left for the priests and the people to show their repentance before the Lord.

Vs. 19-20 Joel cries out to God in intercession for the land and also for the animals. Even the animals and the streams are naturally forced to fast and they are crying out to the Almighty. The locusts like a fire have destroyed everything. God’s judgment– ‘that day’– has touched everyone and every thing in the land. *Top

Vs 13 Joel is declaring to the priests that it is time for them to repent. With the coming of the locust plague, those who administer the daily grain and drink offerings in the temple are out of business. All they can do is put on Sackcloth and cry out in repentance before the Lord directly.

Vs 14 Joel also tells the priests to call for an official fast, to notify the elders and all the people of the land that now is the time for everyone to cry out to the Lord in repentance.

Joel, in his prophetic role, sees in the locust plague a judgment from God over the whole land and people. According to the prophet Joel, it is time for the whole nation to repent.

Today when natural disasters strike, the last thing that people want to hear is that it could be a judgment from God. Most of the time it probably isn’t, but if a minister does declare that the event could be a judgment, than he or she is always ridiculed. However, in the last days according to the scriptures, God will bring major judgments upon the whole earth. In those days, He will also send his prophets once more to declare his word and his judgment. *Top

1:1-12 The Invasion of Locusts

Vs. 1-3 Joel calls the people to recall past locust infestations and no one alive can recall an invasion of this nature or magnitude in the past or even in the legends past down by their people. This invasion is unique in nature and intensity.

Vs. 4 Here Joel is claiming that the land is being devastated by locusts in every level of their development at the same time. From the larva stage to maturity and through to the swarming movement when the insects reach incredible numbers in one location.

Vs. 5 The wine drinkers and particularly the alcoholics will immediately be affected by the plague since the production of new wine will immediately cease.

Vs. 6-7 Joel likens the locust invasion to an army with devastating strength and numbers. In hyperbole he compares their teeth to those of a lion, but then talks of the destruction done by the invasion in realistic terms. All vegetation is utterly and completely destroyed.

Vs. 8 The whole nation is going to suffer anguish. A ‘virgin’ here is one who has been pledged but whose betrothed husband has died before the marriage could be consummated. The farmers have planted and tended the crops but the entire effort was in vain because it was all destroyed before the harvest.

Vs. 9-10 The priests in the Temple will not even have grain or drink offerings to give to God because everything is gone. The gain and the new wine was totally destroyed. Gain, new wine, and olive oil were the staples of the entire economy of Israel. Not only was it gone but they would not be able to continue the obligatory sacrifices to God at the very moment when they needed his help and favor.

Vs.11-12 Everything is gone, the wheat, barley, figs, vines, apples, pomegranates, and palms. It is a complete destruction of the agrarian economy of Israel. Total devastation of all the harvest.

This leaves the entire country in a dire situation. At this point many would be asking God why this was allowed to happened to their land and what to do now in the face of this crisis where potentially the entire nation could perish or suffer incredible losses? In the next section, Joel counsels the priests and the people to repent.

In the Western world today it is hard to conceive of such a situation where the entire population of a nation is threatened. However, we have seen severe famines in North Korea, Ethiopia, and several African nations which threatened the lives of millions even in our modern world.

There have also been natural catastrophes which have brought severe devastations to large areas of land recently, including earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis which have resulted in huge relief efforts to rescue large populations of people at risk. *Top

I. The Day of the Lord in the Past 1
A. The Past Day of the Locust 1:1-12
B. The Past Day of the Drought 1:13-20

II. The Day of the Lord in the Future 2:1-3:21
A. The Coming Day of the Lord 2:1-27
1. Prophecy of the Coming Invasion of 2:1-11
Judah
2. Conditional Promise of the Salvation 2:12-27
of Judah
B. The Ultimate Day of the Lord 2:28-3:21
1. Last Events Before the Terrible Day 2:28-32
of the Lord
2. Events of the Terrible Day of the 3
Lord
a. Judgment on the Gentiles 3:1-17
b. Restoration of Judah 3:18-21

(from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary) *Top

We really don’t know much about the prophet Joel personally. His father’s name was Pethuel, who we don’t know anything about also. He does seem to be familiar with the Temple ministry so some have supposed that he may have been a priest.

There are no historical features that we can point to in order to properly date the writing. Scholars are divided over the potential dating of the writings. Some hold that Joel was a 9th century BC prophet, that his writing show many linguistic characteristics that are common with Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah from that time period. Others believe that Joel was a prophet in the post-exilic period (6th century BC) following Haggai and Zechariah, that he drew upon some material from the earlier prophets.

(To be Continued) *Top