For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Joel 1:1-4     

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, you elders;
    listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
    or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell it to your children,
    and let your children tell it to their children,
    and their children to the next generation.
4 What the locust swarm has left
    the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
    the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
    other locusts have eaten.

A. Find Out:

1. Who is speaking and to whom does he speak? v.1,2a
2. What question does he ask? v.2b
3. What does he instruct them to do? v.3
4. What fourfold destruction has come?

B. Think:

1. What has obviously happened?
2. What is Joel’s concern?
3. How may similar things happen to us?

C. Comment:

Joel’s cry may be paraphrased as, “Doesn’t anyone realise what is going on?” He first of all calls on the elders, the leaders of the people who should be alert to what goes on in the nation, who should understand the times. Then he enlarges it to include everyone in the land. Excuse me, he says, you all seem very complacent about what is happening (implied); can you think of a time when something like this has ever happened before? What is he referring to? Well obviously there had been a tremendous plague of locusts come into the land which had devastated the vegetation. Put another way, there has been a natural disaster. Why is he so excited about it? He sees it as a wake-up call from God, a call to examine themselves.

Whereas the Bible does not ascribe every natural disaster to the Lord, it does show that He does bring such things to fit His purposes. We are told that in the ‘last times’ there will be an increase of such things (Mt 24) in what is a time of godlessness.

Whether we see such things as the direct hand of God, or of the work of Satan unleashed, or simply of the world going wrong as God withholds His hand of blessing in the face of ungodliness and unrighteousness, there does seem a clear link between the increase of such things and the moral state of the world. Now if that is so, then this wakeup call needs to come to all Christians to be alert and to pray when we see natural disasters occurring – for the casualties yes, but more for the state of the nation or the world.

D. Application:

1. Am I aware of the state of the world and our nation?
2. Do I pray as I see what is happening?

Passage: Joel 1:5-12

5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
    Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
    for it has been snatched from your lips.
6 A nation has invaded my land,
    a mighty army without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
    the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste my vines
    and ruined my fig-trees.
It has stripped off their bark
    and thrown it away,
    leaving their branches white.

8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
    grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings
    are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
    those who minister before the Lord.
10 The fields are ruined,
    the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
    the new wine is dried up,
    the olive oil fails.

11 Despair, you farmers,
    wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The vine is dried up
    and the fig-tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree –
    all the trees of the field – are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
    is withered away.

A. Find Out:    

1. Who does he call to do what, and why? v.5
2. What has happened to the land? v.6,7
3. What does he tell them to do? v.8
4. What has had to be stopped in the Temple ? v.9
5. What natural produce has gone? v.10-12
6. What has been taken away? v.12c

B. Think:

1. What has been the extent of the physical devastation?
2. Who are left mourning, and why?
3. How is what has happened, given a human touch?

C. Comment:

The effect of the locusts is devastating. The land has been stripped. The vineyards have been stripped (v.5,7,9-12) so that wine production has ceased, existing stocks have dried up so that both casual drinker (v.5) and sacred drinker (v.9) have been brought to a halt. The fields have also been stripped (v.10) and the grain is gone. This is going to have long-term, ongoing effects. The fig trees have been stripped (v.7), as have all the other fruit trees (v.12). There is no palm oil (v.10).

In every way, all of the nation’s natural resources have been devastated and taken and there is nothing left. Both in the streets and in the Temple there is mourning. When something like this happens, no one is left untouched. Food and drink are the basics of life, but this isn’t just the basics; this is everything. Israel was a land of plenty and the plenty brought a life of fullness and joy. Now all that has been snatched away, the joy of the land has gone (v.12c)

Is this just a locus plague or is the invader (v.6) another real, human nation? The specific description of the trees being stripped and the fields being stripped suggest it is more likely to be the insect variety of invader. Yet in some ways that is what makes it even more humbling. We so often think we have the world under our control and then along comes some pest or disease that wreaks havoc and we realise we aren’t.

D. Application:

1. We need humility to be able to see our frailty and weakness.
2. Where pride rises up, God will withstand us.

Passage: Joel 1:13-20     

13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;
    wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
    you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
    are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Declare a holy fast;
    call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
    and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

15 Alas for that day!
    For the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

16 Has not the food been cut off
    before our very eyes –
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?
17 The seeds are shrivelled
    beneath the clods.
The storehouses are in ruins,
    the granaries have been broken down,
    for the grain has dried up.
18 How the cattle moan!
    The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
    even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19 To you, Lord, I call,
    for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness
    and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals pant for you;
    the streams of water have dried up
    and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

A. Find Out:

1. Who are called to do what, and why? v.13
2. What further are they to do? v.14
3. What is about to come? v.15
4. What is the present state of the land? v.16-18
5. What does the writer do? v.19a
6. What is the physical state of the land? v.19b,20

B. Think:

1. What again, is the present state of the land?
2. Yet of what is the prophet afraid?
3. So what does he call them to do?

C. Comment:

Joel doesn’t dwell on causes; he’s simply concerned with what has happened and what he feels is about to happen. First, what has happened. He continues to make reference to the state of the land after the locust plague. It’s meant, he repeats, that there is nothing to offer in the Temple (v.13c), the absence of food means absence of joy (v.16), there is nothing left in the storehouses (v.17) and the cattle and sheep are wandering about aimlessly, looking for something to eat. It’s like a fire has cleared the land (v.19) and the land is like a barren wasteland (v.20). This is what the land is like after the locusts have been!

But Joel has an even greater concern. He fears this is merely a prelude for the coming of the Lord in a greater judgement. Joel, like a number of other prophets refers to the coming “day of the Lord” (v.15), a day of judgement and destruction. It’s as if this present calamity is merely a warming up time for the Lord to come in even greater judgement, so something has to be done.

He thus calls on the priests (v.13), those at the heart of worship, those who should be closest to the Lord, to mourn the state of the land, and call a fast led by the leaders (v.14), to call out to the Lord. He himself does just that (v.19). Why cry to the Lord? In the hope that He will have mercy and judgement will be averted, that’s why.

D. Application:

1. Prophets catch a sense of the ‘might-be’ and cry out.
2. A threat of judgement calls for our action.