Commentary by Ron Beckham
Verse 1. “The word of
the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:”
The name “Joel”
translates as “The Lord
(Jehovah, Yahweh)
is God.” “Pethuel” is “Persuaded
of God,” a man who undoubtedly was Joel’s father. We know very
little else about Joel, except through inference. There were several
men who were named “Joel” in the Old
Testament, but nothing ties any of them to the author of this Book of
Joel. Neither the northern kingdom of Israel nor its enemies are
mentioned in these chapters, making it likely he wrote after 722 BC,
when Israel fell. This “word” was
directed to Judah, the southern kingdom, and he is among the earliest
prophets to that location.
That he was God’s prophet (“The
word of the Lord” came to him), has been accepted by Israel and
the church for thousands of years. He was one of the “Writing
Prophets” as they have been called, and the book has been
grouped among what is called “the Minor
Prophets” by theologians. Joel mentions the cities of
Phoenicia (3:4) and the country of Edom (3:19), suggesting an early
date for writing, but also refers to Greek traders (3:6), which may
indicate a later date. “The word of the Lord”
comes from eternity, however, and we will do well to prayerfully read
this Book, for it is from the Lord.
Verse 2. “Hear this, O
elders, and listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like
this happened in your days or in your fathers' days?”
God’s Word surprises the people of this earth.
His preference is that we will have GOOD news, but the larger purpose
is always that we will turn to Him and trust in the Lord. If we
refuse to listen, subsequent surprises may be negative in nature. The
shock of historical and contemporary events tend to blast people out
of complacency; forcing us to look outside of ourselves for answers.
Something UNPRECEDENTED was happening to the people of Judah at the
time Joel’s words were written. The implied answer to the question in
this verse, by the way, is “No.”
Christians are called to pray for many who are
suddenly shocked by cancer, the death of a loved one, financial
reversal, divorce, and many other difficulties. God is not surprised
when these things happen, and as we shall see about the events in
Joel, such events may be carefully engineered to bring us out of
selfishness and “back on track” to our relationship with the Lord. 2
Corinthians 1 contains many answers about suffering. 2 Cor. 1:4
reveals that some of our suffering is not about us at all, but is for
someone else: God “comforts us in all our
tribulation that we may be able to comfort”- OTHERS in THEIR
distress.
Verse 3. “Tell your
sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the
next generation.”
We’re supposed to learn from the events, both
good and bad, that happen in other people’s lives. There is a growing
tendency among the young people of our time to reject the experiences
of those who have come before them. It is dangerous to refuse to
learn from the lessons of the past, otherwise those of “the
next generation” will suffer unnecessarily. Part of the blame
is upon the fathers who choose to not lead their children, and part is
on the young, who refuse to listen. ALL will suffer in such a
context.
One thing that happens to parents is that we want
to “look good” to our children and other people, and therefore, we
hide our mistakes from them. This is a critical mistake for all
concerned, for as James advised, “Confess
your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may
be healed” (James 5:16). Hidden sin is like a cancer that
lurks beneath our relationships, poisoning our children “to
the third and fourth generation” (Numbers 14:18). They see
that we are sinners anyway, even when we “hide” from them.
Verse 4. “What the
gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the
swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the
creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.”
As of the time of this verse, disaster had come
or was soon coming to the nation called Judah. Tiny creatures called
“Locusts” were invading the country,
eating all the green vegetation of the land, including the crops that
people depended on for food. “Locusts,”
by the way, are migratory grasshoppers that travel in swarms and are
capable of stripping areas they pass through of all vegetation. They
had seen such creatures before, but never like the current infestation
(see the question asked by verse 2).
Life will do this sometimes. We live in a time
of markets that are typically full of affordable food. This is not
true of all countries and places, but for the most part, abundant food
is available on this planet. What would it be like for most, if we
were to go into neighboring supermarkets tomorrow, and find that all
the food is gone? That was the experience of those who were
attempting to patronize shops at the time of this verse – the shelves
were bare, and nothing like this had ever been seen by them or their
fathers in anyone’s memories.
Verse 5. “Awake,
drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of
the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth.”
There are lots of drunks in the world, and they
are mostly people who started out as those who just “want to have
fun,” but ended up disappointed with life. The “fun” substances they
have been using become their masters, controlling every aspect of
their lives. They still use the substances, but now do it just to
forget about the problems they have created for themselves and other
people through using the substances.
Imagine what would happen if a whole nation,
composed of mostly drunks of one kind or another, was suddenly cut off
from the substances they use to get “high” and forget problems. Well,
first they would be angry, and then, they’d be frightened, for their
buffers against reality were removed. And that’s what happened in
Judah. There were MANY in the land who had turned away from God, and
had turned to substances like wine as a substitute. It was gone and
they wept and wailed at their loss.
Verse 6. “For a nation
has invaded my land, mighty and without number; its teeth are the
teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.”
The locusts that were invading the land of Judah,
the southern kingdom that had been called the nation Israel, were
symbolic of the armies that would come to the nation in the future,
unless the people repented of their sins and turned to the Lord.
These locusts were like the “teeth of a lion,”
destroying everything in their path. Judah would be like prey in the
“fangs of a lioness.”
There is a lot of debate about the Lord. Who is
God? One group says something about Him and another responds with
something else. He exists and our opinions are less important than
who He really IS. The Book of Joel presents Him clearly and we see He
is pure and holy in all His ways, JUDGING this earth. There is a time
for every nation to ask the question seen in Verse 2 – “Has
anything like this happened in your days.”
For judgment will surely come to every nation and to the world.
Verse 7. “It has made
my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare
and cast them away; their branches have become white.”
God special “vine,”
His “fig tree” is the nation Israel,
which had likely been reduced from ten tribes to only two at the time
the words of these verses were written. The name “Israel” was gone
from that place, which was now known by the name of its chief tribe to
the south, Judah. The only other tribes that were extant at that
time, included little Benjamin, who stayed with Judah; along with
Levi, scattered throughout Judah as priests to the nation.
It is best to view the “locusts” described in
this Chapter as millions of literal (rather than figurative) insects
that were eating every green thing in sight. The economy of Judah was
being ruined at the time of these verses, and the people were in
danger of starvation. As the three Chapters of this little Book of
Joel unfold, the writer (the Holy Spirit through Joel) will lift our
attention from these disastrous events to an even greater concern: We
need to look to the Lord.
Verse 8. “Wail like a
virgin girded with sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.”
Sometimes events occur in our lives that are
devastating to the point where it seems that we are like a bride who
was only yesterday dressed in a joyous wedding gown, but today is in
mourning for her dead bridegroom. It should interest you that God was
intimately aware of the feelings of His people in Judah. If He, the
all knowing, all powerful God, understood what they felt, then you can
conclude that He understands YOUR troubles as well.
When you call to Him, “Help me, God,” as those in
Judah should have done, you can KNOW that He hears your cry and
intimately knows your pain. If your situation is not immediately
alleviated as you wish it would be, you can KNOW that His ultimate aim
is for your good. You can KNOW He is good through “faith.” It is a
word which does not necessarily mean that you will understand (or be
delivered) from everything, but it is rather this: When you honestly
reach out and are willing to trust Him, He will enable you to have
faith to trust Him during the times of “sackcloth”
in this world.
Verse 9. “The grain
offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the
Lord.” The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.
The Lord had told Israel that they must give back
to the Lord out of the “first fruits”
of what He would give to them in that land. Each Israelite was to
bring a “sheaf of the first fruits” to
the priest, who would “wave it before the
Lord” (Leviticus 23:10 & forward). This was LAW for those who
lived in Israel, and ALL were commanded to act in such a manner,
including the priests of this verse in Joel.
Have you considered how these priests must have
felt? - They mourned! That was because they were COMMANDED to act in
a certain manner, but could not do it, because there WAS no grain and
no drink to offer – the locusts had eaten everything! The difficulty
with Israel at that time was that they were very religious, but they
(most of them) had no faith in God. And that is a major problem with
many individuals and organizations today.
Verse 10. “The field is
ruined, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries
up, fresh oil fails.”
Jesus was very clear that we are NOT to focus in
the “treasures” of this earth, but
instead our goal should be to lay up “treasures
in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-21). He pointed out that EVERYTHING
we can accumulate in this world, whether it is money, possessions,
health, reputation, marriage, family, fame, or whatever – ALL of it
will eventually be lost. All you can “take with you” is faith, hope
and love (1 Corinthians 13). The economy of Judah was ruined, but God
intended to give them something much better.
If our focus is on the things of this world and
we lose sight of eternity, God will see our need and help us by
removing some of those things. At the point of this verse, the nation
Judah no longer looked to God. He responded to their need by allowing
their fields and grain to be ruined, the new wine to dry up, and the
olive trees to die. Perhaps in their mourning they would look to
Him.
The same process may occur in your life and
mine. Keep in mind that in relation to God, you and I are like
patients in the emergency room of a hospital, and He is the Master
Surgeon. He will remove our cancer of unbelief and replace it with
wholesome faith, hope and love. You will THANK the Surgeon who saved
you.
Verse 11. “Be ashamed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, for the
wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field is
destroyed.”
Every person
gives their life to something or someone. It’s called “passion.”
You might have a passion for sports, your job, or whatever. God was
addressing the small businessmen who lived and worked in the country
of Judah. Their passion in life was mostly farming of one kind or
another, for Judah was largely an agrarian society. The Lord was
addressing them through the prophet Joel at this moment.
This was the
basic message to them: “You are failures! You should be ashamed at
the mess you have made out of the economy of Judah! All is lost
because of you. You’re ruined and it’s your fault!” Those are
definitely NOT the words any of us want to hear. And yet, sin,
either ours or someone else’s, is at the basis of ALL our troubles
in life. Someday we’ll understand that the problems of humanity are
self-caused. We won’t blame God anymore because we have done it to
ourselves.
Verse 12. “The vine dries up and the fig tree fails; the
pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, all the trees of the
field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up from the sons of men.”
God was
pointing out what they already knew: The economy of Israel was
ruined; and now they were told there was a purpose in the economic
disaster that had come upon them. In the Book of Haggai, that
prophet was addressing a people who had come back to the Promised
Land after years in captivity within another nation. They were to
rebuild God’s Temple, but first they rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem
and erected homes for themselves. After that, they lost interest
and the Temple was not finished. God had much to say to them,
including this:
“Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in
little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not
filled with drink; you warm yourselves, but no one is warm; and he
who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes”
(Haggai 1:5-6). God has a will for YOUR life, just as he had (and
has) for those people. If your situation contains lacks of one kind
or another, consider YOUR ways, for He may be nudging you to make
changes in your life.
Verse 13. “Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth O
ministers of my God, for the grain offering and the drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.”
There is an
assumption by many that the clergy within this world are somehow
different from other people and are good enough, even when others
are not. Jesus put the lie to this idea through His many verbal
battles with the Pharisees and Sadducees of His day. The religious
leaders of that time viewed Him as a rival and attempted to stop Him
at all cost. He saw they had religion, but no faith.
God addresses
the religious leaders in this verse in Joel for a good reason: They
were continually in mortal danger, just as we are. Pride can fill
the pulpit and the hearts of religious leaders, as the leaders
themselves slowly begin to decide they are not like other men. Not
so. Revival (an awakening from spiritual deadness) should START
with clergy. If you are a pastor, priest or whatever, humble
yourself and pray, for you are in danger and only God can rescue you
and your (His) flock.
Verse 14. “Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; gather
the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the
Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.”
Throughout
this chapter, God has been pointing out to the people of Judah what
they already knew: that a terrible plague of locusts had come upon
their nation. The Lord has allowed YOU to come face-to-face with
YOUR problems as well. He is content when our lives reach a point
where we see no way out, except that a rational person might then
turn to Him, for that is what life is all about.
The economy
of the country was, for all practical purposes, destroyed, and when
you are in similar distress, here is what is suggested by this
verse: put aside your normal life for a time (a “fast” as defined in Isaiah 58), seek out others in
similar distress, look to those in authority and involve them, join
with as many others as are willing, and “cry
out to the Lord.” People are often strong in body or mind,
but weak in prayer, and the latter is our greatest need.
Verse 15. “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and
it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”
You may not
think so, but be assured that God CARES about you and the troubles
you have known. He is intimately acquainted with all of your
difficulties and He wants to DELIVER you from them. There is, in
your future, a “day of the Lord,”
whether in this life or the next, when He will bring judgment upon
all that has harmed you in life. Indeed the judgment, the “destruction” of God has already fallen on Jesus
Christ, and by receiving Him you can be free.
The phrase “day of the Lord” is the dominant theme of Joel
(1:15, 2:1, 2:31, 3:14) and other prophets used that phrase (or “that day”) as well (Isaiah 13:6,9, Ezekiel 13:5,
30:3, Amos 5:18, 20 to name a few). It means that God will
decisively intervene in history, in the world, in your life and in
mine. The phrase “Day of the Lord”
is used in Scripture for Jesus Christ (Malachi 4:5, Matthew 11:24, 1
Corinthians 5:5 and more). When you look to the Lord, He responds
(in His own time and in His own way), giving Himself to your need,
which may include a “destruction”
that is intended for your ultimate healing.
Verse
16. “Has not food been cut off before our eyes, gladness and joy
from the house of our God?”
God is not shy about pointing
out what we lack in life. We are often painfully aware of our own
shortcomings, secretly noting our personal deficiencies in many
areas. Even though we try to cover them up, WE still know about
them and so does God. In the case of the people of these verses, it
was a desperate time, where even their ability to eat was in doubt
from moment-to-moment, meal-to-meal.
And note their response: They
lost their joy in going to the house of God! He had seen that their
religion had become superficial; not something of the heart. They
were just going through the motions and it had become mere ritual to
them. He pointed out (verse 14) that their true need was to turn to
Him; and their response as seen in this verse is to conclude that He
meant to destroy them and wanted to take their joy from them! Not
true – His will is for you to have the joy of the Lord.
Verse
17. “The seeds shrivel under their clods; the storehouses are
desolate, the barns are torn down, for the grain is dried up.”
This verse represents TERRIBLE
news for the people of Judah. Not only are their crops ruined for
the CURRENT year, but their capability for the future (“the seeds” they intended to plant) is ruined as
well. The storehouses for grain are empty and some of them have
even torn down their barns because they see no future for themselves
at all. Have you felt like that?
It’s one thing to have a
setback in life and another altogether to lose all hope. We know
there is hope because we know the God who loves us and He can
literally work miracles for us. He WILL change our lives for the
better. As it is pointed out in Joel 1:14, the intention of God is
that you will look to the Lord in your troubles and reach out to
Him. He knows your suffering and He loves you.
Verse
18. “How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander aimlessly
because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep
suffer.”
To anyone who loves animals,
this verse is difficult. Our earliest human ancestor, Adam, was
appointed by God to be the governor of the whole earth (Genesis
1:27-30), and even now we are responsible for this place and the
creatures that live upon it. When we (through Adam) fell from the
grace of God, everything else on earth fell with us. Through our
sin we have brought suffering and death, not only on ourselves, but
also on the plant and animal kingdoms.
It is a concern, and it is very
important for us to see that our thoughts and actions have
unexpected repercussions that reach far outside our own lives. Our
children look at what we do, more than they listen to what we say.
The abusive parent produces all too many abusive children who are
likely to harm the neighbor or later on, their own children. Is God
unfair? No, He’s not, and it’s time to look at ourselves as the
problem instead of blaming Him.
Verse
19. “To You, O Lord, I cry; for fire has devoured the pastures of
the wilderness and the flame has burned up all the trees of the
field.”
We don’t know much about Joel,
except for his name, his father’s name and the fact that he lived,
spoke and wrote within the kingdom of Judah. We do know this: in a
generation that was incessantly religious, the people had become
superficial. They had no heart for God. Joel was an exception, for
his response to all the trouble of his place and time is prayer: “To You, O Lord,” he cried.
Devastating fires had come to
the dry countryside. What the locusts had not eaten, the fires
consumed. The trees that provide so much to a region were burned
up. They would provide shade and sustenance no more. If such utter
destruction comes to your life, what will you do? Do like Joel –
literally “cry” out to the Lord and
He will give you the faith that will get you through!
Verse
20. “Even the beasts of the field pant for You; for the water
brooks are dried up and fire has
devoured the pastures of the wilderness.”
In addition to literal fires
that devastated the country for miles around, the prophet also is
observing a drought that coincided with the other disasters that
filled the place. Not only the people and domestic animals, but
also the wild creatures throughout that region were suffering from
thirst. In the light of these verses, you might well consider the
many disasters that have filled this world, and wonder about the
purposes behind them.
As Chapter Two
unfolds, we will see that God openly declares His part in the
catastrophe that has come upon the country of Judah. Or rather, it
is more accurate that the people themselves had become so uncaring
and superficial that the God of love was forced to intervene for
their own safety. As Jesus was to ask in future centuries, “What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and
loses his own soul…?” (Matthew 16:26. A good question – one
that every one of us should consider.
Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries
P.O. Box 92131
Long Beach, CA
90809-2131 USA
www.fridaystudy.org
Ron@fridaystudy.org
