Joe 1:1-20 - THE DAY OF THE LORD BRINGS JUDAH LOW
A. Locusts devastate the land of Judah.
1. ( Joe 1:1-4) The remarkable plague of locusts upon Judah.
The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
a. : The prophet Joel spoke to the southern kingdom of Judah, and makes no reference to the northern kingdom of Israel. It s hard to pin down his exact time, because he doesn t mention any other kings or prophets. Many scholars date the book of Joel to 835 B.C.
i. This makes Joel a pre-exilic prophet, who ministered before the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel (721 B.C.) or the southern kingdom of Judah (586 B.C.). Other pre-exilic prophets include Obadiah, Jonah, Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah. Joel is one of the earliest prophets - only Obadiah prophesied before his time (845 B.C.).
ii. 835 B.C. was a time of turmoil and transition in Judah, at the end of the reign of the Queen Mother Athaliah and the beginning of the reign of King Joash. Athaliah seized power at the sudden death in battle of her son Ahaziah, who only reigned one year ( 2Ki 8:26, 2Ki 11:1). Athaliah killed all her son s heirs, except for one who was hidden in the temple and escaped - one-year-old Josiah ( 2Ki 11:3). Her six-year reign of terror ended in 835 B.C. when the High Priest Jehoiada overthrew Athaliah and set the seven-year-old Josiah on the throne ( 2Ki 11:4-21).
iii. During her six years as queen over Judah, Athaliah reigned wickedly. She was the granddaughter of the wicked King Omri of Israel - making her daughter or niece to Ahab, one of Israel s worst kings ( 2Ki 8:26). Athaliah raised her son Ahaziah to reign in the wicked pattern of Ahab, and even brought in Ahab s counselors to advise him ( 2Ch 22:2-4). When Ahaziah was killed in battle and she seized power, she set her other sons to evil, even desecrating the temple and its sacred things ( 2Ch 24:7).
iv. If we are accurate in thinking that Joel prophesied in 835 B.C. then the judgment he described came toward the end of the six-year reign of ungodliness under Queen Athaliah. No wonder God brought a heavy hand on Judah!
v. The name Joel means Jehovah is God and therefore constitutes a short confession of faith, somewhat like the primary New Testament confession, Jesus is Lord. (Boice)
b. : Joel isn t announcing a coming judgment of the Lord. He describes their present state - devastated by successive swarms of locusts, first , then , then , and finally . Judah will experience a time of famine and financial ruin because of these locusts.
i. This plague was so unusual that Joel says, . The times were so remarkably difficult that parents would tell their children, I lived through the plagues of locusts.
ii. In 1915 a devastating plague of locusts covered what is modern-day Israel and Syria. The first swarms came in March, in clouds so thick they blocked out the sun. The female locusts immediately began to lay eggs, 100 at a time. Witnesses say that in one square yard, there were as many as 65,000 to 75,000 eggs. In a few weeks they hatched, and the young locusts resembled large ants. They couldn t fly yet, and got along by hopping. They marched along 400 to 600 feet a day, devouring every speck of vegetation along the way. After two more stages of molting they became adults who could fly - and the devastation continued.
2. ( Joe 1:5-7) An army of locusts against Judah.
Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against My land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine, and ruined My fig tree; he has stripped it bare and thrown it away; its branches are made white.
a. : Joel tells the to wake up and see the devastation the locusts caused. They came like a mighty , a fierce army against Judah.
b. : God looks at the vines and fig trees of Judah and says they belong to Him, even in judgment.
3. ( Joe 1:8-12) Judah mourns because of the locusts destruction.
Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests mourn, who minister to the LORD. The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree; all the trees of the field are withered; surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.
a. : Joel tells Judah that they should look at their condition and mourn, with all the emotion and passion of a young widow. They should not receive this plague of locusts stoically, with false bravado.
i. In this, Joel doesn t minimize the suffering at all. He isn t like the dentist who says, This may cause a bit of discomfort when he really means This is going to hurt and I am going to make you suffer. He deals with the suffering in a real way and says, Let s turn back to the LORD.
b. : In vivid and poetic images, Joel shows how the whole nation mourns this great destruction brought by locusts.
i. : It s remarkable to see that these sacrifices to the LORD at the temple only stopped when there was no more grain or wine to give to God. Queen Athaliah s reign was wicked, but she allowed the temple ceremonies to continue. This shows us that the devil doesn t mind ceremonies in themselves, and that the devil is more interested in corrupting true religion than eliminating it.
B. Drought devastates the land of Judah.
1. ( Joe 1:13-14) A call to repentance.
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you who minister before the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God; for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
a. : Joel calls the religious leaders to lead the nation in repentance. He tells the priests to for repentance, the idea being prepare to do the work of repentance.
i. Joel also tells them how to do the work of repentance.
·: Make getting right with God so important that even eating isn t important
·: Call for God s people to come together and repent
·: The leaders of the people should make a special point to be part of the work of repentance
·: Come to the place where you should meet together with God
·: Finally, simply cry out to God and trust that He will respond in mercy
b. : When there was grain and wine to bring the people of Judah still brought offerings to the temple, either out of tradition or godly obedience. Now that there is no produce, there is no offering for .
2. ( Joe 1:15-20) The day of the LORD against Judah in drought.
Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles; barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment. O LORD, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.
a. : The idea behind the phrase is that this is Gods time. Man has his day, and the LORD has His . In the ultimate sense, is fulfilled with Jesus judges the earth and returns in glory. In a lesser sense, a time of judgment as Judah experienced with the locusts and drought is also an example of .
b. : Joel vividly describes a devastating drought. It affects everything in Judah, and wildfires ravage the dry land.
c. : In this time of drought, all Judah could do was to God. They were powerless to fix the drought problem. God sent them to a place where only heaven could help them, so they would look no other place.
i. In Luk 13:1-5 Jesus was confronted with the problem of a disaster that killed 18 people. Instead of acting as if it were just an accident of blind fate, Jesus used it as a wake-up call for repentance. Jesus showed that Why did this disaster happen to them? is the wrong question. The right question is Am I ready to face such a disaster in this fallen world?