Monday, December 30
Ruin and Devastation
LOGOS
Joel 1:1-2:11
The prophet summons his
people to consider an event so
striking that they will be com-
pelled to describe it to succeeding
generations (see Joel 1:1-3). They
will add it to the Exodus and
other mighty examples of God’s in-
tervention in human history.
Locusts have devastated the Pal-
estinian countryside, stripping
the land not only of the crops but
of all vegetation. Such insect inva-
sions happened every few years,
the hordes of leaping creatures
being blown in from the eastern
deserts. But this one is the worst
In human memory. Joel describes
the results of the locust plague in
graphic detail, comparing it to an
invading army (see verses 4-12).
The prophet calls for all in
Israel to lament what has hap-
pened. Life has come to a stop
because of the loss of the crops, in-
cluding the services in the temple,
which were dependent on grain
and other produce given as offer-
ings (see verse 9).
But Joel sees more than a
freak of nature. Ancient Israel did
not view the world as one of natu-
ral cause and effect as we do
today. Whatever happened was di-
rectly God’s doing. “Hebrew
theology saw God as the ground
of all life and its manifold experi-
ences. It tended to ignore
secondary causes and lead every-
thing directly back to God, a
somewhat natural tendency in all
religious faith that is conscious of
absolute dependence upon a crea-
tor.”
Thus Joel sees in the locust in-
vasion a national crisis that
transcends the mere physical. It
represents far more importantly a
spiritual crisis—a clear warning
of the coming day of the Lord.
The prophet called for God’s peo-
ple to put on sackcloth, fast, and
repent (see verses 13, 14), for the
day of the Lord was approaching
(see verse 15). Even the priests
were to remove their liturgical
garments and clothe themselves
in the ancient symbols of mourn-
ing (see verse 13). Joel “has seen
the horror of the locust, and dis-
cerned in that event the spectre
of the coming day of the Lord. . . .
It is a sign of his walk with God
that he can perceive the divine
word in the events around him.
And it is a sign of his profoundest
hope that, when faced with disas-
ter, he spontaneously cries out to
God.”
God’s people have rebelled
against God. They face judgment.
But Joel did not just want to put
fear in the hearts of his people be-
cause “in Old Testament thought
the divine wrath has an evangeliz-
ing motif. Judgment is God's work
to make men realize their sin and
moral bankruptcy and so turn
back to him.”
Joel merges the imagery of the
locust plague and an invading
human army to symbolize the
awesomeness of the day of the
by Gerald Wheeler
Gerald Wheeler is editor of Winner magazine at the Review and Herald
Publishing Association, Hagerstown, Maryland.