Studies In Joel

1. Studies In Joel Presentation 01

2. Prelude To Judgement Chapter 1v1-20 Presentation 01

3. Introduction The book of Joel is a remarkable book. We know nothing of the prophet Joel’s background, except that his father's name was Pethuel. We are unsure of when Joel exercised his ministry, estimates vary from C9th-5th B.C. But the date is comparatively unimportant. What is important is the timeless character of his message and the fact that Joel’s ministry bore the stamp of God. He preached, “the word of the Lord” v1. Joel’s ministry can be summed up using three words: plague, penitence and promise. A horror story, a melodrama and an adventure. We look at the first of these… Presentation 01

4. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague We are not all frightened by the same things. Some people are frightened of mice, some are paralysed by spiders others crawl under the bed at the first flash of lightening. But in some lands there are things which strike fear in the heart of every member of the population. In the Middle East the arrival of a plague of locusts was a terrifying piece of news. Pictures of hardship, starvation and death immediately registered in people’s minds. Joel begins by describing the horror of the invasion of a plague of locusts and the devastation that followed. Presentation 01

5. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague The language of v4 may seem obscure to many but Joel is accurately describing the four stages of devastation produced by a locust invasion. First the locust swarm arrives, carried for hundreds of miles by strong winds. Upon landing their ravenous appetites strip large areas clean of vegetation. The female lays her eggs in the ground, weeks later larvae emerge leaving their own trail of devastation - stage two! Larvae can cover 200m. per day. Stage three begins when the larvae moult enabling them to jump, climb walls, ford streams and cross ditches. In the final stage another moult produces wings. They are now capable of reaching up to the tallest trees, stripping them bare. Presentation 01

6. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague People often shrug off disasters if they think that they do not affect them. Joel is intent to show that the coming disaster will affect everyone. His horror story moves form the devastation left by the locusts to the reaction of those who stand helplessly by and watch what is happening! If he was directing a film, the camera would be focusing on quite different groups of people in turn each telling their own story. In each case, the result is the exactly the same, mourning! Each group that falls under Joel’s scrutiny, mourns for a different reason. Presentation 01

7. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague The first group are the drunkards of v5... There’s an element of irony here. The locusts have destroyed the vineyards and there is therefore no new wine to satisfy their craving. Others might shrug off a disaster to the vineyards with some indifference because it does not affect them. But the drunkard views it as a calamity of the first magnitude for there is nothing for him to drink. Presentation 01

8. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague However, a further train of thought may be in Joel's mind. He may be picturing the drunkard emerging from the fog of unreality in which he has lived for years. The escapist, who has run away from his responsibility both to man and to God. His escape route is now cut off. Disaster has sobered him! It is said, ‘death concentrates the mind wonderfully’, as does blocking off a person’s escape route to oblivion. Time and again, when disaster strikes, men are sobered, their senses sharpened, they find themselves having to evaluate their lives afresh. Presentation 01

9. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague The second group who are mourning their loss are the religious leaders in cf. v8ff. where their mourning is described quite graphically. Miss Haversham, the frustrated spinster, in one of Dickens best known novels had an expression that she regularly employed. Her expression gave the novel its title, "Great Expectations." Similarly, as a result of the plague of locusts, the religious leaders would be like frustrated spinsters who, in their old age, mourn over ‘what might have been’. Presentation 01

10. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague Joel is not simply suggesting that they’ll mourn because their livelihood was tied up with the sacrifices but because all that could have been, because of the nation’s special relationship with God, would never materialise. They were required to offer sacrifices daily in the temple as a means of ensuring the presence and blessing of God among his people. Cf Ex.29.38ff. Now this sacrifice would be incomplete without the grain and wine offerings. The nations covenant relationship with God and the blessings associated were seen to be in jeopardy. Presentation 01

11. The Horror Story: Description Of The Plague The third group called upon to mourn are the farmers and vine growers cf. v11ff. Not only was this locust devastation poised to rob the nation of its spiritual good but of its material produce. Israel was an agricultural economy. The plague of locusts would spell economic disaster. Even the fruit trees, which normally could be relied upon to provide fruit if the grain harvests failed, were going to be affected. As a result we find that “the joy of mankind is withered away v12”. This was a disaster to mourn over. Presentation 01

12. An Unprecedented Calamity Joel was not simply in the business of describing a disaster. This disaster was without precedent. Israel had experienced locust invasions before. They are fairly commonplace in the Middle East. What was different about this one? Over a span of 5 generations [v2-3] nothing like it was to be experienced. What distinguished this one was, that God was behind it. It could not be written off as another ‘natural calamity’. Some ask, ‘How could a God of love do such a thing to a nation?’ We need to ask, ‘Would love be indifferent to wickedness and refuse to intervene until it was to late to effect any change?’ Presentation 01

13. An Unprecedented Calamity If a parent sees a child stealing and does nothing, allowing the child to grow up without correction - is that love? When God intervenes and brings disasters into our lives, they are often messengers of his love, to correct us, while we are still open to change. When we stand before the bar of God's justice change is no longer possible! God will go to incredible lengths to gain our attention. C. S. Lewis writes: “God whispers in our hearts, speaks in our consciences but shouts in our suffering. Suffering is God's megaphone to awaken a sleeping world." Love can inflict suffering in order to prevent greater suffering. Presentation 01

14. An Unprecedented Calamity John Newton was a drunken profligate and a slave trader. So foul mouthed was he, that hardened seamen would not join his company. He had closed and hardened his heart to God. He had little time for his mother’s faith nor confidence in her prayers. God finally shipwrecked him. Floating in the sea Newton saw the shipwreck as evidence of God's love for him. He wrote a hymn describing his personal disaster. The hymn begins, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me”. Presentation 01

15. An Unprecedented Calamity God does not hesitate to take responsibility for the plague of locusts and the suffering and devastation brought to Israel. As we get further into the book we will discover that this locust invasion is no more than a foretaste of the coming day of God's judgement and it is sent in advance of that day as a warning of it. It is as though God were saying, “I am giving you a taste of this because I do not want to give you a taste of that”. That's grace. Presentation 01

16. An Unprecedented Calamity Some people will always argue that such judgements are arbitrary and unjust. ‘Why should Judah be judged and not the other nations?’ ‘Why should this person have such a rough time and not that one?’ Some think that God’s judgements present an insurmountable problem to a belief in God. But notice, it didn't trouble the biblical writers. They had a higher vision of God's majesty and holiness and a more accurate estimation of man's depravity than those who raise such objections. Presentation 01

17. An Unprecedented Calamity Jesus was asked a similar question cf. Luke 13v1. Some of Pilate’s soldiers had killed a group of Galileans who were sacrificing in the temple, and asked Jesus, “how could a good God let this happen?”. These worshippers were killed in the very act of worship! Far from side-stepping the issue Jesus cites another incident, the collapse of the tower of Siloam killing 18 people. How could God permit that? Were they more sinful, and more deserving of God's judgement than anyone else? Jesus did not say, “Well accidents will happen”. He said, ‘Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? I tell you no! But unless you repent you too will perish...’ Presentation 01

18. An Unprecedented Calamity Jesus is saying? Those who object to such tragedies, err because they ask the wrong question. They should be asking is; “Why haven't such disasters fallen upon us?” Our problem is that we have forgotten the scale of our rebellion against God. We have forgotten that it generally takes a disaster of unparalleled proportion to wake us up from sin’s lethargy. Both the delays in God's judgement and the previews of final judgement which he gives are for our good, to bring us to repentance. Presentation 01

19. Call For Repentance Joel calls upon the people to repent v13ff… No one likes to admit they have wandered from God. It is so easy to fall into the ‘I will if he will’ approach to spirituality. We do not want to be the first to admit we are wrong. God expects the religious leaders to take the lead, says Joel, and acknowledge the desperate condition of the nation and of their own hearts. They were to call a fast day, which would be used to point from the locust disaster with the possibility of preventing one of far greater magnitude. cf. v15... ‘alas for that day... a day of awesome judgement’. Presentation 01

20. Call For Repentance Disaster was staring Israel in the face and they could not see it. This is the thrust of v16-18. The pleading prophet says, ‘Face reality and read the signs of God’s corrective judgement surrounding you.’ Is there evidence of God’s locusts in our lives? Is God may wanting to attract out attention? Again and again throughout history God says to his people, ‘I have allowed this in order that I might deliver you from that’. But before deliverance can come we need to understand what it is in our lives that God is anxious to draw to our attention. Presentation 01

21. Call For Repentance Notice that the prophet does not stand aloof from the people and their sin. In v19 he identifies himself with them and cries to God to be merciful. He recognises the danger even if others do not. Why even the wild animals are able to recognise when something out of the ordinary is happening to nature. But God’s people continue to remain blind to the seriousness of their condition. How can animals have more spiritual discernment than God’s people? Presentation 01

22. Conclusion We may not have locusts troubling our land. But we do have black Mondays and economic recessions. We have spiritual and material devastation. Do we tend to dismiss these things? Are we intent upon remaining impervious to all that God is saying to us? How loud does God’s megaphone need to be until we hear him speak and acknowledge the wrongs he wants me to right?’ Dare we ask, “has God been trying to attract my attention, has he been trying to speak to me and found my ears stopped, my eyes closed and my mind distracted?” Presentation 01

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