Joel 1

Devastation is everywhere. War, famine, natural disasters and violence fill our world. The fruit of the Spirit, love, peace, joy, mercy, kindness, are being stripped and replaced with hatred, wars, sadness, revenge and a need to control. Instead of brotherly love we have prejudice and generalizations. Satan's army seeks to kill and destroy and he wants those who profess Christ Jesus the most. We do not fight with physical weapons but our weapons are spiritual for pulling down strongholds. The Fruit of the Spirit encased in faith is our weapon for truth and goodness. People starve and governments fight for power and supremacy. The joy of the Lord, our strength, no longer sustains us as we seek to protect our rights at the expense of everyone else. The world needs a wakeup call but to what degree will it be used to self destruct? When the Holy Spirit leaves this earth the path of destruction is determined.

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

2 Hear this, you elders,

And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!

Has anything like this happened in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

3 Tell your children about it,

Let your children tell their children,

And their children another generation.

4 What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten;

What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;

And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you drinkers of wine,

Because of the new wine,

For it has been cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation has come up against My land,

Strong, and without number;

His teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.

7 He has laid waste My vine,

And ruined My fig tree;

He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;

Its branches are made white.

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For the husband of her youth.

9 The grain offering and the drink offering

Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;

The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord.

10 The field is wasted,

The land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

The new wine is dried up,

The oil fails.

11 Be ashamed, you farmers,

Wail, you vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the harvest of the field has perished.

12 The vine has dried up,

And the fig tree has withered;

The pomegranate tree,

The palm tree also,

And the apple tree—

All the trees of the field are withered;

Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.

13 Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;

Wail, you who minister before the altar;

Come, lie all night in sackcloth,

You who minister to my God;

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

14 Consecrate a fast,

Call a sacred assembly;

Gather the elders

And wall the inhabitants of the land

Into 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 at hand;

It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

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,

Storehouses are in shambles;

Barns are broken down,

For the grain has withered.

18 How the animals groan!

The herds of cattle are restless,

Because they have no pasture;

Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

19 O Lord, to You I cry out;

For fire has devoured the open pastures,

And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.

20 The beasts of the field also cry out to You,

For the water brooks are dried up,

And fire has devoured the open pastures.

The NKJV Study Bible says this: The presentation of the message was the work of the prophet. Joel means "The Lord Is God." The calamity of recent days was unprecedented in the memory of the people. Joel's description of the damage done by the locusts compares with eyewitness reports. The impression given is one of overwhelming devastation. The devastation of the locusts meant that no sacrifice could be offered. The land is personified as mourning because the three principle crops it produced—grain, grapes, and olives—had been destroyed. The people had anticipated the joy of harvest, but due to the disaster of the locust plague, their joy has withered away. Joel reminds the nation's leaders that being restored to blessing requires repentance. God will not withhold His favor and blessing from those who are truly repentant. The day of the Lord refers to a time of judgment and deliverance. Joel views the locust plague as a contemporary day of judgment that was serving as a token or forewarning of an even greater, future "day of the Lord." The prophet adds his own voice to the bellowing of beasts, the wailing of drunkards, and the mourning of priests. He was part of the suffering community, not an outsider looking on from a distance. This language describes a period of time in which God "comes down" in a dramatic way to bring wrath and judgment on the wicked and salvation to the righteous. God is Lord of time. There is no period that is not "the day of the Lord" in a general sense. But at times God enters the space-time arena to assert in bold, dramatic ways that He is in control.