Day 255 (Joel 1-3) - Year 8

Tara-Leigh Cobble (0:01)

Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Today we finished our 31st book of the Bible. It was written by the minor prophet Joel. We don't know anything about him, even when he lived, but based on context clues, we can narrow it down to about a 300-year timeframe, with the most recent part of that being post-exile. He makes references to the temple, so we just know it's either before 586 BC or after 516 BC.

Some think this book prophesies the Babylonian invasion, so they place it pre-exile, in the same time period as the prophets we've already been reading. Others think this was written post-exile, because he addresses his letter to the elders, not to a king, and that's who would have been in charge of things after they returned from exile. But based on where it's placed in this plan, it seems like the people at Blue Letter Bible, who put the plan together, lean more toward pre-exile. So, imagine this being written around the same time Ezekiel wrote his book. Joel contains a lot of mystery. In addition to not really knowing who he is or when he lived, he also tends to be more vague than most other prophets. He doesn't name any of Israel's sins specifically, unlike other prophets, and he barely mentions which enemy nations he's referring to. As with most prophecy, this is going to be another zoom-out book where we look at the big picture more than the details. The book opens with a plague of locusts who've swarmed the land. In scripture, armies are often compared to invading locusts, but here Joel flips the metaphor and compares locusts to an invading army. This locust swarm isn't just a nuisance, it's a total agricultural devastation. Verse 7 says they've destroyed the vines and fig trees, both of which are things locusts only attack after they've already eaten everything else. Apparently, vines and fig trees are the locust version of pizza crust. Who knew?

When locusts eat everything, they move on, but their damage will impact the people for years to come because it takes a long time for plants and trees to grow back and bear fruit again. On top of lacking food for themselves, the people also lack grain and wine and oil for daily offerings at the temple. Joel tells the priest to lament and call for a fast. Biblical lamenting can be an expression of grief and it can also be an expression of repentance, which means to change directions. And fasting, as we see it in scripture, always describes abstaining from food specifically, and it's often adjacent to mourning and repenting too. So even though Joel never names a specific sin, his call to fasting and repentance show us that he views this disaster as a consequence of something the people have done wrong, which fits with the way the old covenant, the conditional covenant, worked between God and his people.

In chapter 2, Joel says a day of judgment is coming. This is the day of the Lord, which we've read about many times, and he seems to point to a future military invasion, as though these locusts are foreshadowing it. And according to verse 11, this invading army will be sent there by God himself. There seems to be a hope that God will relent from this disaster because right after the promise of judgment, he issues a call to repentance, which is often his way of providing a way of escape. God wants the people to truly repent, not just so the bugs will go away or the army won't come, but because their hearts are turned toward him and they truly want to walk in his ways. He wants them to draw near to him out of delight, not as a form of escapism. There's a difference and God knows it. Here's an analogy.

One of my friend's jokes about how her favorite seat in her house is her toilet because that's the only place she can get a moment of peace and quiet sometimes. Does my friend go into her bathroom because she really loves it? No, she just hates chaos. Do we treat God like our bathroom sometimes? Probably. But does he shame us for that? No, but he knows there's more available for us. Because he's not just a refuge in times of trouble, he's also our song of joy. God tells the people, don't just come to me because you're in trouble. Come to me, but bring your broken heart, not the clothes you've torn in some kind of surface level repentance.

And in this passage, Joel quotes the verses we've seen so much in our reading, Exodus 34, 6-7, where God tells Moses who he is. Joel reminds the people who God has always been and says, We don't know what he'll do, but we know who he is, so repent.