This week we are looking at a letter
that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of
Joel. Yesterday, we looked on Joel
called the Jewish people to a time of mourning as a result of experiencing a
locust plague. Joel used poetic language and metaphor to describe the swarm of
locust and the damage that these locusts brought upon the Jewish people. The
devastation affected every sector of agriculture, nothing was spared, no
citizen escaped the plague.
We discussed the
reality that a natural question that often arises in the wake of such a
disaster is “Why? Why did this happen?” And in most instances throughout
history, we never fully receive an answer to that question. However, in this
case, the Lord, through the prophet Joel, reveal the reality that this swarm of locusts was an instrument of God’s judgment on the Jewish people as a
result of their selfishness and rebellion against Him.
Joel used the imagery of a mighty army attacking an
enemy and a raging wildfire to describe the force and destruction of the plague
of locusts. Just like a raging wildfire, the locust consumed everything in
their path, leaving nothing but desolation in their wake. The sound of the army
of locust feeding on the vegetation of the land sounded like the cracking of a
roaring fire as it consumes a bush.
Like a well-trained
army, the plague of locusts remained in formation to attack and conquer
everything in their path; there is no way to stop them and there is no way of
escape. They found their way into every crack and crevice of the Southern
Kingdom. Their sheer size and scope blocked out the light of the sun by day and
the moon by night. Joel then asked a rhetorical question that was probably
running through the mind of every Jewish person who experienced this plague: “The
day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it?"
Joel then provided the answer to this question in what he says next in Joel 2:12-27:
12 "Yet even now,"
declares the LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting,
weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your
garments." Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and
compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of
evil. 14 Who knows whether He will not turn and relent And leave a blessing behind Him, Even a grain offering and a drink
offering For the LORD your God? 15 Blow a trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, 16 Gather the people,
sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and the
nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room And the bride out of
her bridal chamber. 17
Let the priests, the LORD'S ministers, Weep between the porch and the altar,
And let them say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not make Your
inheritance a reproach, A byword among the nations. Why should they among the
peoples say, 'Where is their God?'" 18 Then the LORD will be
zealous for His land And will have pity on His people. 19 The LORD
will answer and say to His people, "Behold, I am going to send you grain,
new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied in full with them; And I will never again make you a reproach
among the nations. 20 "But I will remove the northern army far from you, And I will drive
it into a parched and desolate land, And its vanguard into the eastern sea, And
its rear guard into the western sea. And its stench will arise and its foul
smell will come up, For it has done great things." 21 Do not
fear, O land, rejoice and be glad, For the LORD has done great things. 22
Do not fear, beasts of the field, For the pastures of the wilderness have
turned green, For the tree has borne its fruit, The fig tree and the vine have
yielded in full. 23 So rejoice, O sons of Zion, And be glad in the
LORD your God; For He has given you the early rain for your vindication. And He has poured down for you the rain, The
early and latter rain as before. 24 The threshing floors will be
full of grain, And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. 25
"Then I will make up to you for the years That the swarming locust has
eaten, The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My
great army which I sent among you. 26 "You will have plenty to
eat and be satisfied And praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt
wondrously with you; Then My people will never be put to shame. 27
"Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the
LORD your God, And there is no other; And My people will never be put to shame.
Just as we saw two
weeks ago when we looked at the message of the book of Amos, the Lord, through
Joel, proclaimed to the Jewish people "Yet even now," declares the
LORD, "Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and
mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments." You see, the Lord
desired that the Jewish people change the trajectory of their life that was
moving away from God back toward God.
And in order to return
to the Lord, the Lord wanted the Jewish people to tear their heart, not their
garments. In other words, the Lord desired that the Jewish people have broken
hearts over their rebellion, not just external actions that covered a heart
that was not broken over their rebellion. The Lord called the Jewish people to
gather together for a special time of national confession and repentance. No
one was to be excluded. Regardless of age or stage of life; regardless of
relational status; regardless of whatever special plans that they had made; the
Jewish people were to stop everything in their life to demonstrate their grief
and remorse and their desire to turn from their rebellion and turn back to the
Lord.
And if the Jewish
people responded to the Lord by changing the trajectory of their life that was
moving away from the Lord back to the Lord: If the Jewish people had broken
hearts over their rebellion, not just external actions that covered a heart
that was not broken over their rebellion, the Lord would respond by removing
the army of locusts and by restoring and making up for what the locusts had
destroyed.
And as Joel continued
proclaiming the Lord’s message to the Jewish people, we see Joel shift from the
short-term circumstances of the Jewish people to describe a long term, and far
more significant event. A significant event that we will look at on Friday…
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