All gave some. Some Gave All. Lest we forget.

Daily Devotional Friday 9th July 2021

by William Moody

Joel 1

1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

An Invasion of Locusts

  Hear this, you elders;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
  Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
  Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children to another generation.
  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.
  Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
  because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
  For a nation has come up against my land,
    powerful and beyond number;
  its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
  It has laid waste my vine
    and splintered my fig tree;
  it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.
  Lament like a virgin1 wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
  The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the LORD.
  The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the LORD.
10   The fields are destroyed,
    the ground mourns,
  because the grain is destroyed,
    the wine dries up,
    the oil languishes.
11   Be ashamed,2 O tillers of the soil;
    wail, O vinedressers,
  for the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest of the field has perished.
12   The vine dries up;
    the fig tree languishes.
  Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
  and gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

A Call to Repentance

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.
15   Alas for the day!
  For the day of the LORD is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty3 it comes.
16   Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
  joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?
17   The seed shrivels under the clods;4
    the storehouses are desolate;
  the granaries are torn down
    because the grain has dried up.
18   How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
  because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.5
19   To you, O LORD, I call.
  For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
  and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
20   Even the beasts of the field pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
  and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

Footnotes

[1] 1:8 Or young woman
[2] 1:11 The Hebrew words for dry up and be ashamed in verses 10–12, 17 sound alike
[3] 1:15 Destruction sounds like the Hebrew for Almighty
[4] 1:17 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain
[5] 1:18 Or are made desolate

(ESV)

We can’t be sure when Joel wrote this prophecy although it may have been the time when Queen Athaliah and then Joash reigned (2 Chronicles 22-23).

The prophecy comes after a devastating plague of locusts has gone through the land and this is the theme of chapter 1. Joel recounts the impact of this swarm (v1-12).

We read of a plague of locusts in Egypt as judgment on Pharaoh, but at that time the Israelites were protected. Here the Israelites experience the full force and Joel teaches this is God judgment.

Joel calls for repentance (v13-20) not just individually but as a nation for their sin. Joel warns that if they don’t repent a greater judgment is coming (v15).

The phrase ‘the day of the Lord‘ is popular in Joel. It is God’s day when God puts right what has been done against Him. Evil has its day, but the day of the Lord is God’s time to be vindicated.

In the world around us we see disasters and we can’t say each one is God’s judgment. But we do need to see all disasters as a warning that God’s judgment on sin is coming. We must be sure that we’re like the wise virgins who were ready (see Matthew 25 v1-13).

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.