Joel 1: A Devastated Land

[Preliminary Comments: At an unclear point of history, an otherwise unknown prophet speaks to the leaders of the nation [elders – 1:2,14, 2:16, priests – 1:9,13, 2:17] as well as specific people affected by what has happened, e.g. farmers & vine-growers [v.11]. Clearly, if we take it literally, four sets of locusts have poured out over the land [v.4], devastating the land and the various harvests of Israel – grain, grapes, figs, olives, etc., apparently accompanied by a drought [v.10,12,17,20]. He calls the priests to call for a day of prayer and fasting for the crisis – the state of the land [v.13,14] and an apparently hopeless future without seed or plants for next year. He himself prays and calls on the Lord [v.19,20] They are in a desperate plight.]

v.1-3 Joel calls the elders of Israel to consider their plight

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

v.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? 

v.3 Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. 

v.4-7 A fourfold locust invasion [four the sign of divine authority behind it?] has come

v.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. 

v.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. 

v.6 A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. 

v.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. 

v.8-12 This ‘army’ has devastated this agricultural-based land

v.8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth. 

v.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. 

v.10 The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails. 

v.11 Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed. 

v.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. 

v.13,14 This warrants the priest calling the nation to prayer & fasting

v.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. 

v.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. 

v.15-18 This must foreshadow a coming of an even bigger day of judgment

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

v.16 Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God? 

v.17 The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up. 

v.18 How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering. 

v.19,20 In the face of this devastation Joel calls on the Lord.

v.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. 

v.20 Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

[Additional Comments: Although Joel makes no reference to it, such devastations in the history of Israel and in the Law of Moses, are obvious signs of divine judgment. [confirmed in 2:25].  In that case the obvious person to appeal to is the Lord. Although their plight should be obvious to the nation, Joel puts it in perspective and suggests it is almost symbolic of the devastation that will come on the earth in the great final day of the Lord [v.15]. This present crisis may be bad but it is nothing like that which will occur then.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: