Through the Bible - Joel

That which the palmer worm hath left, the locust hath eaten; and that which the locust hath left, the cankerworm hath eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left, the caterpillar hath eaten. (Joel 1:4)

How a swarm of locusts in Judah's darkest hour points all the way to the great and terrible day of the Lord—and the gracious God who calls us to turn.

Meeting the Prophet Joel

Joel is one of the minor prophets—not minor because he was less professional than Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, or Jeremiah, but because his writings are shorter. Three chapters, yet packed with powerful prophecy. He was a prophet to the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin around 830 B.C., before the exile into Babylon.

You can read the corresponding history in 2 Kings 11 and 12. At this time a wicked queen named Athaliah had taken over the leadership of Judah. She was the niece of King Ahab in the north, whose wife was Jezebel. When her husband died, Athaliah seized power and killed all the seed royal—the sons of the king—so no one could threaten her throne. But a priest in the temple hid one of the king's sons, Joash, who was just one year old. After six years of her wicked rule, they anointed Joash king at seven years old, and Athaliah fled and was put to death. It is believed that the events in Joel took place during that six-year period of wickedness.

A Current Event With Future Implications

As you read through Joel, you notice he speaks of an invasion—not an army of men, but an army of locusts that came into the nation and utterly annihilated everything related to food. The locusts came first, then a drought, then fire that seemed to fly through the land, purging all the crops.

Joel calls the people to mourn. He tells the drunkards to weep, for the new wine is cut off (1:5). He tells the priests to lament like a young widow, for the meat offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord (1:8). He tells the farmers to cry out, because their crops are devastated.

So when we begin Joel, we must recognize that he is not initially describing a future event. He is describing a current event with future prophetic implications. In 1:2-3 he says:

Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

This event was so devastating they would be telling their grandchildren about it. We may think, an invasion of bugs? But even recently a swarm of locusts moved across northern Africa and completely consumed crops across many nations. This invasion devastated the whole country and its finances, and Joel reveals the truth behind it: this is the hand of God, brought because of the wickedness in the land.

The Day of the Lord and the Call to Fast

Many times in our own history as a nation we have looked upon famine or flood and recognized the hand of the Lord, with a call to repentance following. Joel, like many prophets, called the people to turn. In 1:14 he says:

Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.

He continues: "Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come." The day of the Lord is any time when God directly intervenes and deals with man here on earth—a time of judgment and intervention.

What we also see in Joel is that there is coming a great and terrible day of the Lord at the end of days. Joel looks forward further than almost any other prophet of his day to a time yet to come. He was also one of the first prophets to write down his prophecies.

Turn With All Your Heart

This time the people seem to have listened. Through Joel's prophecy he warns that an even greater army of men is coming to overrun and destroy the nation (chapter 2:6-11)—an efficient army that will not break ranks but will purge every city. He uses the present locust judgment to say something bigger is coming, calling the people in 2:12 to turn to God with all their heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Like the men of Zebulun who understood the times and knew what Israel should do, Joel understood his day. And whenever someone turns to the Lord, it must be with all the heart. Jeremiah 29:13 says, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

A lot of people turn to God only in crisis, seeking a quick fix. When the problem is gone, they return to their old life and explain it away. Others come half-hearted—one foot in the boat and one foot on the dock, double-minded and unstable in all their ways. But that will never bring the restoration God can give. If you want to find the Lord and His restoration, you must seek Him with all your heart.

Rend Your Heart, Not Your Garments

Fasting, weeping, and mourning are external indications of seeking God—but they are not the whole picture. Esau sought a blessing with bitter tears, yet he would not truly repent. Many come to God lamenting their sin without turning to Him with all their heart. That is why verse 13 is so important:

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Consider Nineveh. When Jonah preached, they repented in dust and ashes from the greatest to the least—even putting ashes on the animals. If anyone had a visible repentance, it was Nineveh. Yet 150 years later they had returned to wickedness and were destroyed. External evidences are not enough; there must be an inward heart change, and that change is only seen over time as the fruit of the Spirit is manifested. Still, the external matters—God does call them to fasting, weeping, and mourning—but the heart must be broken before Him.

Why We Should Turn: He Is Gracious

Why should we turn to the Lord? Notice that Joel does not begin with "He is an angry God ready to destroy you," even though God is angry with the wicked every day and will by no means clear the guilty. The first thing God reveals of His character to Moses in Exodus 34 is that He is the LORD, merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.

God is compassionate. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. The phrase "repenteth him of the evil" means God does not desire to punish—He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Yet He is also a righteous judge who will not clear the guilty.

We cannot make ourselves righteous like the Pharisees. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might receive His righteousness. The only way to stand before God unjudged is clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Those who refuse His righteousness abide under God's righteous judgment, and on that day no one will say it is unfair. God does not look forward to consuming sinful man—that craving for vengeance is the flesh of man, and the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

Perhaps He Will Leave a Blessing

In 2:14 Joel says, "Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him?" The word "repent" here is better translated relent. If we turn with weeping, fasting, and mourning, rending our hearts and not our garments, perhaps He will stay His hand and leave a blessing behind Him—even a meat offering and a drink offering, such abundance that we can again bring God the fruit of the land.

This is the graciousness of God. We deserve punishment—we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But as we turn to Him with our whole hearts, He gives mercy (not giving us what we deserve) and goes further to give grace (giving us a blessing). As 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face... then will I hear from heaven... and will heal their land." So we see what to do—turn to God; why—because He is gracious; and what comes of it—a blessing and not a curse.

The Promised Defense and Restoration

In 2:18-20 the prophet speaks of the promised defense: if they turn, God who was against them because of their wickedness will instead defend and protect them as His people. Then in 2:21-27 God promises to restore them.

When we receive these promises, we must stand upon them. As a result we can stand without fear: "Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the LORD will do great things." We can rejoice and be glad: "Be glad then, ye children of Zion... for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain." And we will be satisfied: "And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God." His people shall never be ashamed.

God promises the end of drought, an abundant harvest, and total restoration. In 2:25 He says, "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you." God admits He sent the locusts—but if they turn, He will fully restore, satisfy with fullness, and assure them of His presence: "And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God."

The Outpouring of the Spirit

Then Joel gives another great promise—a future prophetic vision quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. (Joel 2:28-29)

Circle the word all. The origin of this blessing is God: "I will pour out." The source is His Spirit. The focus is all flesh—not just the Jews or those with the temple. The result is prophecy, dreams, and visions. The section is bracketed like bookends, beginning and ending with "I will pour out my spirit."

Prophetic Landmarks and the Great and Terrible Day

After the outpouring, Joel turns to what comes next:

And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come. (Joel 2:30-31)

This is a prophetic landmark you see in Isaiah, Jeremiah, here in Joel, in other minor prophets, and in Jesus' words in Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse. There, after Jesus said not one stone of the temple would be left on another, His disciples asked, "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" They wrongly assumed the temple's destruction meant the end of the world; but these were two separate events. At the end of His answer Jesus repeats the very signs Joel gives—the sun darkened, the moon turned to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord, the day when God pours out His wrath on a Christ-rejecting world.

That day is still to come, and certain signs are landmarks pointing to it. Jesus told us to take note of current events, as Joel did, recognizing their prophetic implications. I would submit that 9/11 was a day of the Lord—but not the great and terrible day. Scripture says it is like birth pains, growing closer together and more intense before the birth. We are seeing the signs of the times grow closer and more intense.

The Time of the Gospel

It is during this present period that God pours out His Spirit for a great time of evangelism. As Jesus said in Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me." In Matthew 24:14 He says, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

By whose power do we preach? The Holy Spirit—the very Spirit Joel said would be poured out on all flesh, equipping and enabling the people of God to witness. We are living in this time when the gospel is being preached and the Spirit is being poured out.

The example of Joel holds true for us. He looked at the locust invasion and recognized God speaking through current events. God still speaks today. There are great cataclysmic events in our day, and through them God is saying, "Wake up." And the call to give the world is the same: turn to God with all your heart, for if you do, God will pour out a blessing instead of a curse. If you don't, you abide under His wrath.

Wrath Short, Grace Long

There is a coming day of wrath, yet 1 Thessalonians 5:9 tells us we are not appointed to God's wrath. Praise God for that. Some have said the great and terrible day already happened in A.D. 70, but the moon was not turned to blood and the sun was not darkened then. What it means for the moon to turn to blood and the sun to darken, I cannot fully say—I believe it is an earthly perspective of what God is doing, not a scientific explanation.

Consider this: in a biblical worldview there have been about 10,000 years of human history, yet the great and terrible day of the Lord is only a three-and-a-half year period, and the full outpouring of His wrath comes in one cataclysmic event in the Valley of Megiddo, Armageddon, at the last day. Ten thousand years of rebellion, and God pours out His wrath for a very short time. God is gracious. He is a good God.

And even then, salvation remains: "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered" (2:32). There will still be a remnant God calls—the book of Revelation reveals 144,000 of the Jewish remnant. God will still be doing great works of mercy even as His wrath is poured out.

God's Final Work in Joel 3

Joel 3:1-3 tells us God will work once again with the people of Israel—He is not done with them, as Paul says in Romans 11. Do not be ignorant, church: God still has a plan. Yet Romans 9 reminds us that not all Israel are Israel; Israel means governed of God, and not all born of Abraham are truly governed of God. But God is not finished with His remnant.

Verses 4-8 say God will judge those who mistreated Israel. Verses 9-14 describe the nations gathering for the great war in the Valley of Megiddo, the Jezreel Valley, Armageddon: "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." Again the prophetic landmark appears—"The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining." The Lord will roar out of Zion, the heavens and earth shall shake, but "the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." He will destroy these armies with the word that goes forth from His mouth.

Finally, verses 18-21 close the book with the blessing God pours upon the righteous—those who are in Christ—and the desolation that comes upon the wicked. This is the day God separates the sheep from the goats: those who know Him on the right hand, those cast into the lake of fire on the left. Scripture is very clear about these things, and they are coming.

The Call to Us Today

Joel spoke these words some 2,800 years ago, and we are seeing them come to pass. But we still live in the time when the gospel is being preached as a witness and the Holy Spirit is still equipping us to go out and preach. So look at the world around you and recognize what the current events are saying—that God is on the move and doing a work.

And then say to the people: in light of these things, turn to God with all your heart, with weeping, mourning, and fasting. Rend your hearts and not your garments. For God is gracious and merciful, and if you turn to Him—though you have rebelled against Him—He will leave a blessing and not a curse. This is what God is doing. Amen.

Closing Prayer

God, we do thank You that You have revealed to us what You are doing in these last days. The prophetic passages of the Bible, Lord, are the divine fingerprint that tells us this is of You. Help us to look around and see what You are doing, and to be bold to preach the word, in season and out of season, to convince, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. May we be those who call to our friends and family who currently abide under the wrath that is to come, saying, "Rend your heart and not your garment, because God is gracious. He doesn't want to punish you, but He will." Lord, give us boldness as we prepare to go from here tonight, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.