seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Joel 1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, you elders;
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
4 What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
other locusts[a] have eaten.
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
4 What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
other locusts[a] have eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
for it has been snatched from your lips.
Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
for it has been snatched from your lips.
6 A nation has invaded my land,
a mighty army without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste my vines
and ruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their bark
and thrown it away,
leaving their branches white.
8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings
are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister before the Lord.
10 The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
the olive oil fails.
grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings
are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister before the Lord.
10 The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
the olive oil fails.
11 Despair, you farmers,
wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple[b] tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
is withered away.
wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple[b] tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
is withered away.
13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
15 Alas for that day!
For the day of the Lord is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.[c]
For the day of the Lord is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.[c]
16 Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
17 The seeds are shriveled
beneath the clods.[d]
The storehouses are in ruins,
the granaries have been broken down,
for the grain has dried up.
18 How the cattle moan!
The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
17 The seeds are shriveled
beneath the clods.[d]
The storehouses are in ruins,
the granaries have been broken down,
for the grain has dried up.
18 How the cattle moan!
The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 To you, Lord, I call,
for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness
and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals pant for you;
the streams of water have dried up
and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness
and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals pant for you;
the streams of water have dried up
and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
a. Joel 1:4 The precise meaning of the four Hebrew words used here for locusts is uncertain.
b. Joel 1:12 Or possibly apricot
c. Joel 1:15 Hebrew Shaddai
d. Joel 1:17 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
Wow, this is bleak. I can imagine myself standing next to Joel and staring out at total devastation. There would be nothing to eat.... the locusts ate everything. There would be no offering to take to the Temple..... the locusts ate everything. In verse 3 it says tell it to your children.... and tell your children to tell their children and pass it down. It's a warning.... and it's a warning that needs to be passed down.
This is from the easy English site.
Joel tells us his father’s name, but he says nothing about himself. Some students think that he wrote his book about 850 years before the birth of Jesus. Other students think that he wrote it about 330 years later than that. The really important thing is that Joel has a message from God.
Nearly all God’s people have forgotten to love God. And they have forgotten to obey him. So God allows bad things to happen. There is no rain. The plants do not grow well and insects come to eat them. And these things are only a beginning.
Joel talks about an army of locusts. In chapter 1, it seems that the locusts are real locusts. Later, Joel talks again about an army of locusts. Many students think that, this time, he means an army of soldiers. So there is an army that consists of locusts. And there is also an army that consists of soldiers. Both these armies come to make God’s people think. God’s people need to think about why these armies come. Joel explains it all in this book.
Many of God’s people have stopped loving God. They are not trying to please him. They do not care about God’s laws or about his promises. And they think that God does not notice. So Joel now warns the people that God is their ruler. The Day of the Lord is a day with great and awful troubles. God will bring that day if his people do not come back to him. That is the day that Joel is talking about. It is like the day in Revelation 6:16-17.
Even the animals seem to know that it is a time to be sad. But God’s own people do not know why bad things are happening. They seem not to care.
This is from bible-studys.org.
The book of Joel is penned by the prophet Joel. He was a prophet in Judah. The name "Joel" means Jehovah is God. Joel was trying to call the people to repent of their sins, and be brought back into good standing with God. The one message that really stands out in the book of Joel is "the Day of the Lord". Joel is unique in the fact of the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh.
The prophet described the contemporary Day of the Lord. The land was suffering massive devastation caused by a locust plague and drought. The details of the calamity, are followed by a summons to communal penitence and reformation.
Total destruction affected all social and economic levels. Affected were the drunkards who delighted in the abundance of the vine , the priests who utilized the produce in the offerings, and the farmers who planted, cultivated, and reaped the harvest.
As building toward a crescendo, the prophet noted in the first stanza that the luxuries of life were withdrawn. In the second, the elements needed to worship were interrupted. In the third, the essentials for living were snatched away.
To lose the enjoyment of wine was one thing; to no longer be able to outwardly worship God was another; but to have nothing to eat was the sentence of death!
And... this is from Enduringword.com.For the day of the LORD is at hand: The idea behind the phrase the day of the LORD is that this is Gods’ time. Man has his “day,” and the LORD has His day. In the ultimate sense, the day of the LORD is fulfilled when Jesus judges the earth and returns in glory. In a lesser sense, a time of judgment as Judah experienced with the locusts and drought is also an example of the day of the LORD.
The seed shrivels… they have no pasture… the flocks of sheep suffer punishment… fire has devoured the open pastures… the water brooks are dried up: Joel vividly described a devastating drought. It affected everything in Judah, and wildfires ravaged the dry land.
O LORD, to You I cry out: In this time of drought, all Judah could do was cry out to God. They were powerless to fix the drought problem. God sent them to a place where only heaven could help them, so they would look no other place.
The problem with these prophecies is they require gloom and doom. It's hard on a human suffering with depression..... reading this stuff doesn't cheer anyone up. That makes this stuff really difficult to deal with from the pulpit. I bet if a preacher were to get into preaching from Joel... he'd be told toot sweet to get back to the feel good stuff in the New Testament before they have to go out and find a preacher who will. Humans don't want to think about famine, war, and devastation. Humans don't want to tell their children about the famine, devastation, or wars that Joel is warning about.... the little drummer boy or the little donkey are more on the reading list for modern day children. Hubby and I were watching Al Jazeera the other day. There are some huge locusts eating in East Africa. Hubby said.... "it's all protein.... why don't they trap them and eat them"? He has a valid point. Levitcus 11:22 gives them permission to eat those locusts. So why aren't they rounding them up and eating them back in the days of Joel?
Maybe the reason those stupid humans in Joel's day didn't net the locusts..... is they didn't know they could eat them. God told them they were an edible treat when He handed the law down to Moses. Those stupid humans didn't pass that information down..... the parents didn't tell the kids that eating locust is ok.... so the children didn't tell their children....
So they starved to death while the food that God was sending them..... swarmed around them...... stupid humans.
