Joel
As with many prophets in the Bible, Joel is not “forecasting” joy and harmony without a little upheaval. Verse 1:4 is either describing an actual infestation or as we see later may be an illustration:
What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten.
Either way this resulting devastation is awful. At least if the swarms of locusts are actual bugs they are more easily dealt with, since you could technically eat them. But if the “locust” were invading armies or people actually destroying your resources, that is another story. The other problem with prophecies is determining if they already have happened or are still in our future. Also, one has to consider that they may never happen at all.
This gets into a ton of “quantum possibilities” at any given moment. Consider God has a prophet tell us He will destroy the city of Atlanta with fire. For whatever reason, this prophet is listened to and the city of Atlanta follows with verses 1:13 – 14:
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast;
call 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.
Atlanta repents and God decides not to destroy the city. We took a possible future and changed it by our actions. This happens more often than I think we realize. We will see shortly in the Book of Jonah where Nineveh is spared destruction because they wail.
Now the next chapter again starts with destruction but ends with repentance. Verse 2:12 lays out true repentance:
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
I believe all too often we approach God with the “forgive me for I have sinned” mantra without real emotion. I know often times I ask for God to forgive me for something I have done, without real contrition. No I just say the words and a few days later repeat the sin and give the Lord a “half-assed” confession. Notice the fasting, the weeping and mourning that the people do to receive forgiveness. Granted they just God slapped upside the head with some armies attacking that wake a person up. Hopefully we all can take our “sins” a bit more serious and really confess.
The chapter ends on a “high note” in verses 3:17 – 18, where God restores the nation in a land flowing with milk and honey:
17 “So you shall know that I am the LORD your God,
who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
and strangers shall never again pass through it.
18 “And in that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the stream beds of Judah
shall flow with water;
and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD
and water the Valley of Shittim
Ok so it is milk and wine in this story, but it’s still a viable paradise. I read these final chapters and wonder if this has happened or is predicting the second coming of Jesus. Will this happen in our life or does it keep getting pushed back because we start the final days realize what is happening and pray.
Look at how the nation changed and came together after 9/11. The day after our neighbor hoods were blanketed with US Flags and church attendance spiked. Now over 10 years later, the flags are put up, the churches are not growing and there is talk of revolution. God is being dismissed and money is being exalted. I pray this is not a time for another “awakening” that does not cost the lives of others.