Joel 1
McGeeCHAPTER 1THEME: Literal and local plague of locusts; looking to the Day of the Lord (prelude)The prophecy of Joel contains only three very brief chapters, but it holds an important position in Scripture. As the first of the writing prophets, it is Joel who introduces and defines the term, “the day of the LORD.”
Joel 1:1
LITERAL AND LOCAL PLAGUE OF LOCUSTSThere are those who have thought that Joel was a son of Samuel (see 1Sa_8:1-2), but Samuel’s sons were very wicked and this Joel certainly is not. This boy’s father was Pethuel. Joel was a common name, and it means “Jehovah is God.”
Joel 1:2
Apparently Israel was in the midst of a great locust plague at this time. Locust plagues were rather commonplace in that land, but Joel calls to the old men and says, “Did anything like this ever happen in your day? Did it happen in the day of your fathers? Have you ever heard anything like this locust plague?” Of course, they had to say, “No, this is the worst we’ve ever had.” The trouble with most of us as we begin to get older is that we have grandiose ideas about the past. If some young person comes and says to us, “Say, we just had a wonderful meeting at our church,” we like to say, “That’s wonderful, that was a great meeting, but we had a meeting that was twice as good back in my hometown when I was young.” Joel said, “You old men have never heard of anything like this"and the old men had to agree that they had not.
Joel 1:3
Joel goes on to say, “You can pass this on down. Tell your children about this and have them tell their children, because there’s not going to be a plague of locusts like this ever again.” Does this remind you of another passage of Scripture? In the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, when the Lord Jesus identified the period which He Himself labeled the Great Tribulation period, He said the same thing about it. He said that there has never been anything like it before, and there is not going to be anything like it afterward. Now that more or less puts parentheses around that period and slips it into a unique slot in history. During the Great Tribulation no one will be able to say, “This reminds me of when I was a young fellowwe had a real time of trouble back then.” We have never had a period like the Great Tribulation.
For all periods of recorded history in the past, there have always been previous times in history that could match it. However, the Lord Jesus made it very clear concerning the Great Tribulation: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” [Mat_24:21]. When people are in the midst of the Great Tribulation, there will be none of this questioning that we hear today: “Do you think that the Great Depression was the Great Tribulation?” Or, “Do you think that all this turmoil today is the Great Tribulation?” The answer is very easy to come by when we turn to the words of the Lord Jesus. He said there is nothing like it in the past. We’ve had times like this before, my friendthey can all be duplicated in the past. And since things are not getting better but getting worse, neither can we say there will be nothing like this in the future. In a very dramatic way, Joel is saying, “Look, this locust plague is uniquethere has never been anything like it, but there is coming another unique period called the Day of the Lord.” The Day of the Lord will open with the Great Tribulation after the church has left this world. It will be a frightful time on this earth, horrible beyond description, and then Christ will come and establish His Kingdom. I wish the people who deny that the Bible teaches these things would study the total Word of God and not just lift out a few verses here and there. We need to study the entire Word of God to know what it says. This plague of locusts stands alone as being different from any other plague that has taken place. The plague of locusts in the land of Egypt at the time of Moses was a miraculous plagueit was a judgment of God. However, this plague was what we would call a natural event. There are several things that we need to understand about the locust as many of us are not familiar with them at all. As a boy I always enjoyed lying on my bed before an open window on a summer evening and listening to the locusts in the trees. However, they were never a plague, and they probably were not the same kind of locusts which were in Israel in Bible times or even today. If you have ever seen pictures of fields after a plague of locusts, you know that locusts seem to have a scorched earth policy of their ownit looks just as if a fire had burned over the field and destroyed everything. The Word of God speaks of locusts, and one passage I will draw your attention to is Pro_30:27, “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.” Locusts march as an army, and they are divided into different bands as they go. That will help us understand Joel’s description of this locust plague as we come to verse Joe_1:4
Joel 1:4
It is true that four different words are used herethe palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar. There are those who believe that this refers to four different types of insects, but there really is no basis for that. The palmerworm means “to gnaw off.” The word for locust in Hebrew is arbeh and it suggests that there are many of them and they are migratorythey move as a great swarm. The cankerworm means “to lick off,” and the caterpillar means “to devour or to consume.” These four words describe the locust and what he does. The locusts move in bands just like an army. First of all, there are the planes which come over and drop the bombs.
Then after the bombs have been dropped by the air corps, the artillery comes through and destroys every section, leaving great areas devastated, but a great deal remains. Then the infantry comes alongthat’s the third groupand they get what has been left. The mop-up crew follows after that, and they will get what little may still be there. What we have here, therefore, are four words which describe the different bands of locusts. They have no general, they have no king, they have no lieutenants or sergeants, but they move just like an army. Locusts were often sent by God as a judgment, but we would put this plague in the category of a natural plague. I believe that it was not necessarily a judgment, but a warning to the people, a warning to the nation. Joel was the first writing prophet, and he prophesied at the same time as Elijah. As Elijah was warning the northern kingdom, this man Joel, in a most dramatic manner, was warning the southern kingdom of a judgment that was coming. He will move from the local judgmentit was the method of all the prophets to move from the local situation into the futureto the judgment that is coming at the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is one of the most misunderstood terms and yet one of the most important in Scripture. Joel was the first to use it, and he makes very clear what the Day of the Lord is. After him, all the other prophets had to do was to speak of “that day,” and it was understood as to what they were referring. Now I am getting a little bit ahead of this chapter, but I want to say that Joel will move from this literal and local plague of locusts to speak of the Day of the Lord which begins with the Great Tribulation period. How does the Great Tribulation period open? It opens with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse: there is a false peace, then war breaks out, followed by a famine, and then finally the pale horse of death. I see a tremendous parallel between these four bands of locusts and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. During the Great Tribulation period it will not be literal locusts, but it will be something far worse that is going to ride, not just through that land, but through the entire world. The world will be totally devastated when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the earth to set up His Kingdom.
Joel 1:5
The locusts have gotten to the grapes first. They have stripped all the vineyards, and there will be no more wine for the drunkards. The man who was an alcoholic in that day found himself taking the cure before he intended to because there was no more wine to drink. This reveals that, even at the beginning of the downfall of the nation Israel, the great sin was drunkenness. We are frequently reminded that most of the accidents which take place on our highways are caused by some individual who is exercising his freedom and right to drink. Entire families have been killed on the highway while out on a holiday because some drunk driver has hit them head-on. I may be criticized for moving into the realm of politics, but, my friend, I am studying the Word of God, and when it talks about drunkenness, I am going to talk about drunkenness. And when God’s Word speaks about the king being a drunkard, then I will talk about drunkenness in my nation’s capital. When we are told that there are dozens of cocktail parties every day in Washington, D.C., it is no wonder that some of the decisions which are being handed down look as if they were coming from men who are not in their right minds. “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine.” At the very beginning, drunkenness was beginning to chip away the foundation of the nation Israel. This is the only sin Joel will mention. He will not mention idolatry at all, the great sin of turning from God, which eventually brought the nation down. At this time the people still made a profession of worshiping God.
Joel 1:6
Here the locusts are compared to an invading army and its destructiveness. These little bitty insects, the locusts, can tear a tree down. They can move through a field of grain and absolutely leave nothing but bare ground. They came along in these four bands with no leader, no king. They came, in most cases, as a judgment from God, but this plague was a warning from God. Later Joel will move ahead to that which is still future, the Day of the Lord which will be just like a locust plague upon the earth. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are yet to ride.
Joel 1:7
The locusts actually can kill a fig tree. They absolutely stripped a fig tree of its bark, leaving nothing but the naked wood exposed. Joel is sending out a message to the people, and he is going to tell them what they are to do at a time like this. He will tell them ten things they are to do
Joel 1:8
He says something now that is unusual: (1) They are to lament. Like a young bride who has lost her husband, perhaps killed in battle, that is the way this nation should weep.
Joel 1:9
“The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD.” In other words, they are not able to make an offering at all. (2) “The priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn.” All through this passage the same thing is said. The drunkards mourned and the priests mournedthe entire economy was affected by this plague. This verse and other verses lead us to believe that the prophet Joel was in Jerusalem. He speaks here to the priests who minister in the house of the Lord.
Joel 1:10
There was no olive oil and no grapes and no grain. The three staple crops which they had were now destroyed. Even the land is to mourn. You see, the land and the people were closely intertwined. The Mosaic Law was not only given to a people, it was given to a land. Joel has spoken to the drunkards, he has spoken to the priests, and now he will speak to the farmers:
Joel 1:11
(3) “Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen.” (4) “Howl, O ye vinedressers.” The vinedressers are vineyard owners. “The apple tree” is actually the orange tree which is indigenous to that land.
Joel 1:13
(5) “Gird yourselves,” (6) “and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar.” The priests could not perform their function because there was nothing for them to use for the offerings. They were to lie all night girded with sackcloth and ashes because there was no meat offering and no drink offering. The economy of the land was wrecked, and there was not even enough to make an offering to God. However, God makes it clear that it was not the ritual that was important but the hearts of the people. In these verses God is asking the people to do something that He had not asked before. When God gave the Mosaic Law, He gave seven feast days to these people, and He made it clear that He did not want them to come before Him with a long face. He wanted them to come to His house rejoicing and with joy in their hearts. Have you noticed today that when Christians meet together in church it is generally not a very joyful occasion? I am even rebuked for telling funny stories. Sometimes I see a lot of saints who just sit there and do not even crack a smile. I wish they wouldI think it would do them good. There is no joy today, and there was no joy in Joel’s day. Why is God for the first time telling His people, “I want you to lament. I want you in sackcloth and ashes. I want you to mourn”? Before He had told them, “I want you to come before Me with joy.” The reason is because of sin in the nation. That is the same reason there is such a lack of joy today. The world is surely working hard today. The music has to be loud and fast, and the jokes have to be dirty to even get a laugh. Even in our churches it is considered almost sinful to laugh out loud. Oh, my friend, where is our joy today? It is gone because of sin. God won’t let us have joy. He said to these people, “Come before Me now with your mourning. I do not like it, but you are sinful and I want to see your repentance.”
Joel 1:14
(7) “Sanctify ye a fast.” God had never asked them to do that before. God had given them feast daysHe never gave them a fast day until they plunged into sin. The one sin Joel mentions which was destroying the nation was drunkenness. It was robbing people of their normal thinking; they were not able to make right judgments. (8) “Call a solemn assembly.” In other words, they were to come together. God had wanted them to come together and rejoice in His presence, but now He says this is to be a solemn assembly. (9) “Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God.” This was a time to go to church. During World War II there were two rather godless men who were good friends and belonged to all different kinds of clubs (drinking clubs, most of them), but they met one Sunday at church. One of them said, “Well, I didn’t know you went to church!” The other replied, “I don’t usually go to churchthis is my first time. But I’ve got a son over there fighting in this war, and I thought it was about time I got to church.” My friend, times of great trouble drive people to God. The people of the land were to come together for a fast day. (10) “Cry unto the LORD.” Why? Because God is merciful. God is gracious. God wants to forgive. Our God is a wonderful God. They were to come to Him in this time of difficulty, and He would hear and answer their prayer. Joel has given a warning to these people, and he has given them these injunctions. These are the things they are to do if they want the blessing of God upon them.
Joel 1:15
LOOKING TO THE DAY OF THE LORD (PRELUDE)In a masterly way, Joel now moves from the local situation, this plague of locusts, down to the end of the age and the Day of the Lord. “Alas for the day!” What day are you talking about, Joel? “For the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” Like a little model, a little adumbration of that which is coming in the future, this local plague of locusts was a warning, a picture of the coming Day of the Lord. It should have alerted the people. Joel is now going to tell them about something in the future. That which was coming in the future, the thing which had been promised to David, was a kingdom. David would be raised up to rule over that Kingdom. War would cease, and there would be peace on the earth. All the prophets spoke about that, but they also spoke about what Joel is saying herethe coming of the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord must be understood in contrast to the other days which are mentioned in Scripture. You and I are living today in what Scripture calls man’s day. It began with Nebuchadnezzar, and the Lord Jesus labeled it “the times of the Gentiles.” He said, “…Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luk_21:24). We are living in a man’s day. Man is the one who makes the judgments today. We appeal to the Supreme Court, but we do not appeal to God. We have forgotten Him altogether. His name is just a word to swear by and to blaspheme. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer makes this comment concerning man’s day: “This theme, obscured at times by translators, is referred to but once in the New Testament, namely, 1Co_4:3, which reads, ‘But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment, yea, I judge not mine own self.’ Now in this passage the phrase, ‘man’s judgment’ is really a reference to human opinion current in this age, which might properly and literally be translated, ‘man’s day.’” We are living in the day of man. Believe me, humanism abounds today. Man believes he can solve the problems of the world, but what has man really done? He has gotten the world into an awful mess right now. Every new politician who comes along thinks he has the answer. My friend, they do not have the answers; man cannot solve the problems of this world. I understand there have been some admissions in the cloakrooms of our own government and the chancelleries of the great nations of the world that man is incapable of solving the problems of the world today. Scripture speaks of another day that is comingthe Day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in 1Co_1:7-8: “So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” What is the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ? It is the day when He will come to take His church out of this world, and then the church will come before the judgment seat of Christ. My life verse is Php_1:6 which reads, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (italics mine). He is going to keep us until that day when He takes us out of the world and we appear before Him to see whether we receive a reward or not. Both the Old and the New Testament speak of the Day of the Lord. 2Th_2:2 tells us, “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” The Thessalonian believers were afraid that they would miss the Rapture. Our translation of this verse is an unfortunate onethe word Christ should have been translated as “Lord"in other words, “as the day of the Lord is at hand.” Paul is assuring the believers that they will not go through the Day of the Lord. Joel will make very clear what the Day of the Lord is. He will say that the Day of the Lord is a dark, gloomy, and difficult day. The Hebrew viewpoint was that they would enter immediately into the Kingdomthat life would be a breeze with no problems at all. But Joel says that the Day of the Lord begins with night, with darkness. That darkness is the Great Tribulation period. It will be like this locust plague that has come with its four bands of locusts like the four horsemen of the Apocalypse who will ride in the Great Tribulation period. Then the Day of the Lord will include the coming of Christ to the earth to establish His Kingdom. Then His people will enter into the sunshine of His presence. That was the Old Testament hope; that was the thing the Old Testament taught. My friend, you can see how important it is to study all of the Bible. One man wrote to me to explain what he thought the day of the Lord was. He wrote several pages, giving Scripture after Scripture, but he never gave one verse from Joel. He didn’t understand that Joel is the very key. Joel was the first of the writing prophets. You cannot say the Day of the Lord is something other than what Joel says it is; it must fit into the program which he describes.
All the prophets who came after him used this term many times. “The Day of the Lord” occurs about seventy-five times in the entire Bible; “the day of the LORD” occurs five times and “that day” one time in the Book of Joel. All of the prophets have a great deal to say about the Day of the Lord, and we need to recognize that it is a technical term which is defined and used consistently in Scripture. To summarize, there is (1) man’s day, the day in which we are living now; (2) the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He will take the church out of this world; then (3) the Day of the Lord beginning with the Great Tribulation period. After all, we label the different days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on. God has labeled these different periods of time also. This is not something men thought of, but it is what the Word of God teaches. I should say that the Day of the Lord is not the same as the Lord’s Day that is mentioned in Rev_1:10. The Lord’s Day is the first day of the week, which the New Testament makes very clear. Many people say the Day of the Lord and the Lord’s Day are the same just because they use the same two words. That is ridiculousas ridiculous as saying there is no difference between a chestnut horse and a horse chestnut. If you take two words and turn them around, you get something altogether different. In the one you’ve got a nut, and in the other you’ve got a horse! The Day of the Lord and the Lord’s Day are two different things.
Joel 1:16
Joel continues talking about this plague of locusts. There was no more joy and gladness in the house of God. I have had the privilege in the past few years of my ministry of speaking in the great pulpits of this country and at many of the great Bible conferences. I have noted that there is a sadness in congregations as they come together today. In many places I have found that at the first service there is an air of expectancy. You can feel it, the air is charged with it, but there is no note of gladness.
At some meetings in Florida, a man with the FBI said to me, “I’ve been watching your method. I’ve noted that you get up before a congregation, and you slide very quietly and slowly into a funny story to get the people into a good humor.” I said, “You’ve noticed that?” And he said, “Yes, and I think I know why you do it. I think you’re doing it because there is a low level of joy among the people today.” I told the man that he was right. The joy was gone in Israel, and today, even when we have everything, there is no joy in our services.
Joel 1:17
“The seed is rotten under their clods.” The grain couldn’t even come up, because the locusts had just gnawed off the shoots even with the ground. “The garners are laid desolate"they could not fill up the granary.
Joel 1:18
The locusts have their own scorched earth policy. It was just as if the ground had been entirely burned off.
Joel 1:20
This was a very terrible, treacherous time. Even the animal worldboth the animals in the barnyard and the wild animals out yonder in the forestwere being affected by this plague. It was a judgment that touched all life in that land in that day, and it becomes a picture of the Day of the Lord that is coming.