Joel

It didn’t take long to read this short, and often forgotten, book. Yet I found it very interesting this book that’s seems steeped in eschatology (the end of all things).

The book begins by referencing a locust swarm that has devastated the land (Joel 1:2-12). (To get a better understanding of locust swarms and what Joel is talking about, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psH4lqB_Yyc) This image of a multitude of invaders pops up again and again in Joel’s writing and plays a key part in his understanding of the day of the Lord.

Anyway, Joel uses this natural disaster as a call for repentance. He calls for the people to recognize their sin and their need for God’s forgiveness (Joel 1:12-20). So complete is the destruction brought by the locusts that even the beasts are left suffering, panting for the provision that God promises to all the earth (1:20). This image of the locust swarm destroying all the plants of the land seems to be the template as Joel contemplates the day of the Lord. As complete as the destruction of a locust swarm can be, the destruction on the day of the Lord is even worse. The heading usually put on this section (2:1-11) is “The Day of the Lord,” but as I read it I can’t help but wonder if maybe this is a reference to the destruction wrought sin, the devil and his minions. The Garden of Eden, which God created as perfect, has been destroyed by sin and the devil. It corrupts everything that God has made good, leaving desolation and death in its wake. Even man is not spared by their onslaught, but are corrupted themselves and subject to death. Who indeed can endure the day of the Lord, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?

And so the call for repentance and turning to God is repeated, “for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and He relents over disaster” (2:13). God promises to restore all that was lost to Israel with the coming of the swarm, so much that they will know that He is in their midst and that He alone is their God (2:18-27). More than that He will give to all people His Spirit and “show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke” (2:30). I found it interesting that the first in this list was blood. Perhaps a connection to the Exodus, when the Nile turned to blood. And perhaps pointing to the future, when the Lord would spill His own blood for the sin of the world. When He would be the lamb that pays the price for all sin and restores His people to Himself. When He would speak from the cloud (smoke??) that Jesus of Nazareth is His Son, with whom He is well pleased and who will take the sin of the world upon His shoulders and die for them all.

Joel closes with a decree of judgement on the nations that reject Him and oppress the people of Judah (3:1-16). And then a final message of hope for the future of Judah, being supplied by Lord from the house of the Lord. The New Jerusalem, the home and hope of all Christians, is not something that will last until some other Adam and Eve come along, but will stand forever in the love and mercy of our Almighty God.