When you’re in a crisis, you’ll hear all kinds of voices interpreting what’s going on and telling you what to do. The optimists will say, “This crisis isn’t going to last. Be brave!” The pessimists will sob, “It’s going to get worse and there’s no escape! We’re done for!” The alarmists will see the enemy behind every tree, and the scoffers will question the news reports and shrug their shoulders saying, “What difference does it make anyway?”
But Joel was a realist who looked at life from the standpoint of the Word of the Lord. He addressed himself to five groups of citizens and gave them four admonitions from the Lord.
The elders and citizens in general: “Hear this!”
(vv. 2–4). He addressed the old men first for probably two reasons: they had long experience and could authenticate what he was saying, and they were respected citizens in the land. With their support, Joel wasn’t just a voice crying in the wilderness. They agreed with the prophet that the nation faced a catastrophe of monumental proportion such as they had never seen before. It was something people would tell to their children and grandchildren for years to come.
Joel used four different words to describe the plague (v. 4; see 2:25), and it’s been suggested that they represent four stages in the life cycle of the locusts. However, the words probably convey the idea of successive swarms of locusts invading the land, each swarm destroying what the others had left behind. A swarm of locusts can devastate the vegetation of a countryside with amazing rapidity and thoroughness, and nothing can stop them (Ex. 10:1–20).
To the drunkards: “Wake up and weep!” (vv. 5–7). Except for pointing out the insincerity of some of the worshippers (2:12–13), drunkenness is the only sin that Joel actually names in his book. However, this was a serious sin that the prophets often condemned (Hos. 7:5; Amos 4:1). Perhaps the drunkards represented all the careless people in the land whose only interest was sinful pleasure.
These people had good reason to weep because there was no wine and wouldn’t be any more until the next season, if there was a next season. Because of the locusts and the drought, “the new wine is dried up … the vine is dried up” (Joel 1:10,12). Keep in mind that bread and wine were staples in the Jewish diet, so that even the people who didn’t get drunk were affected by the loss.
Joel compared the locusts to an invading nation and to hungry lions with sharp teeth (v. 6; see 2:2, 11). They attacked the vines and the fig trees, two things essential to Jewish life. Having one’s own vineyard and fig trees was a symbol of success and contentment in the East (2:22; Isa. 36:16; Amos 4:9; Ps. 105:33). Note how Joel uses the personal pronoun “my” as he speaks of the land and its vegetation, for all of it belonged to the Lord, and He had a right to do with it whatever He pleased.
To the farmers: “Despair and wail!” (vv. 8–12). Joel named some of the crops that had been ruined: the grain (wheat and barley), the new wine, the oil, and the fruit from the pomegranate, palm, and apple trees. From season to season, the locusts ate whatever was produced, and the drought kept the soil from producing anything more. In verses 18–20, Joel includes the flocks and herds and their pastures. All that the farmers could do was express their grief and lament like an engaged girl whose fiancé had died. It seemed a hopeless situation.
To the priests: “Call a fast!” (vv. 13–20). Not only were the people in need, but so was the temple. Nobody could bring the proper sacrifices because no meal, wine, or animals were available. Joel called the priests to lament and pray, including those who worked “the night shift” (Ps. 134:1).
The Jews were required to observe only one fast, and that was on the annual day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29, 31). But the religious leaders could call a fast whenever the people faced an emergency and needed to humble themselves and seek God’s face (Judg. 20:26; 2 Chron. 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Neh. 9:1–3; Jer. 36:9). This was such an emergency. “Gird yourself” (Joel 1:13) means “Put on sackcloth!” (See Jer. 4:8; 6:26.) It was time for the people to humble themselves and pray (2 Chron. 7:14).
In Joel 1:15–18, we have the lament of the nation, and in verses 19–20, the prayer of the prophet as he interceded for the nation. The lament is a vivid description of the sad condition of the land, the crops, the flocks, and the herds; for “the day of the Lord” had come to the nation. The immediate reference is to the assault of the locusts and the devastating effects of the drought, but later, Joel uses the phrase to describe the terrible “day of the Lord” when the nations will be judged. God is the Lord of creation, and without His blessing, nature cannot produce what we need for sustaining life (Ps. 65; 104:10–18, 21; 145:15). We should never pray lightly, “Give us this day our daily bread,” for only God can sustain life (Acts 17:25, 28).
“How the cattle moan!” (Joel 1: niv). This reminds us that all creation “groans and labors” because of the bondage of sin in the world (Rom. 8:18–22; Gen. 3:17–19). Creation longs for that day when the Creator will return to earth and set it free from sin’s shackles, and then “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad … and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like the rose” (Isa. 35:1).
It wasn’t enough for the people to humble themselves and lament; they also had to pray. This is what God required in His covenant with His people (2 Chron. 6:26–27; 7:12–15; see Deut. 28:23–24). Joel didn’t ask God for anything; he simply told the Lord of the suffering of the land, the beasts, and the people, knowing that God would do what was right. “The fire” (Joel 1:20) refers to the drought, which left the land looking like it had been burned.
Too often we drift along from day to day, taking