Jonah was a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel who was called by the Lord to go and speak to the Gentiles at the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh. Joel is a prophet from the southern kingdom of Judah who is called by the Lord to speak to his own people of Judah. Neither the northern kingdom nor the southern kingdom has fallen to an enemy nation yet. The Assyrian Empire is the major world power at the time and has become the primary threat to Judah, to Israel, and to a number of other nations in that part of the world. We already know from our study of the kings that Assyria is the nation that conquered Israel and, throughout much of our study of the kings, it appeared as if Assyria would be the nation to conquer Judah as well. This is not how things turned out, for Assyria was defeated by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and in turn the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the nation of Judah.
It's important to note that some scholars believe the locusts that will be spoken of by the prophet Joel is a reference to the repeated invasions of the Assyrians and is not a reference to literal locusts. Others, however, interpret the word "locusts" literally and believe that the Lord sent locusts into the land as a method of discipline in order to correct the waywardness of the people's hearts. After all, the Lord did warn the people before bringing them into the promised land that if they did not remain faithful to Him, "You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it...Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land." (Deuteronomy 28:38,42) I feel that a good argument can be made for either theory. The book of Joel itself is difficult to pin down to a precise date and the other books of the Bible which were written around the same time do not mention a literal plague of locusts, so I will leave it up to each of us to decide for ourselves whether we feel the locusts mentioned here are insects or are whether they represent the Assyrian army.
"The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel. 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?" (Joel 1:1-2) Joel is identified as the son of Pethuel but no other mention is made of Pethuel in the Old Testament. No doubt the people of the time would have known who the man was but this information has been lost to the ages. The book of Joel also does not tell us the name of the king (or kings) who ruled Judah during the days of his ministry. The majority opinion on this is that Joel spoke to the nation somewhere around 835 BC, perhaps beginning during the days of the evil Queen Athaliah who took the throne upon the death of her son, King Ahaziah, and who tried to wipe out all the males of the royal family so she could reign unopposed. Many scholars assert that an actual plague of locusts occurred during the end of her reign due to her idolatrous ways and due to the wicked influence she had on the nation. She was a daughter of the Baal-worshiping King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel and she had married the son and heir of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. Some scholars think that the plague of locusts came during the time she held onto the throne and that the plague ended around the time that it was revealed that her young grandson, Joash, had escaped the slaughter of the princes and had been hidden at the temple for six years.
But whenever it was that Joel prophesied to Judah, and whether the mention of locusts is literal or represents the Assyrian invasions, it's clear that hard times have come upon the nation. These times are so trying that Joel appeals to the elders of Judah by saying, "Have you ever seen anything this bad before? Did your fathers ever go through hard times such as these?" This is a wise question because whenever adversity comes we should examine our hearts and pray to the Lord to see whether we are living in a wrong way that has brought tribulation into our lives.
It's been a somewhat popular opinion throughout the ages, though erroneous if you ask me, that we should never question the Lord. I agree that there is a wrong way to question the Lord (a way that casts doubt upon whether He is in the right to have sent adversity, for He is always right in everything He does) but I do not believe there is anything wrong with asking the Lord why our circumstances have become unpleasant. In fact, I think the wisest thing we can do in a time of adversity is to ask the Lord whether we are living in a way that's displeasing to Him and whether that's the cause of our current hardship. It's possible to be sinning against the Lord and not be consciously aware of it, which is why David prayed to the Lord, "But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression." (Psalm 19:12-13) David asked the Lord for the strength to resist sinning purposely; he refers to such sins as "willful sins" and as a "great transgression". But he also prayed for forgiveness of sins he was not aware of committing. He refers to these as "hidden faults", not because they are hidden from God but because imperfect human beings are incapable of constantly being aware of every wrong attitude or every unwise thought. So whenever adversity comes, I feel the best thing we should do and the first thing we should do is ask the Lord if there's a sin in our lives that needs to be dealt with. The sooner we examine our hearts and humble ourselves before the Lord, the sooner our circumstances may turn around.
Joel asks the elders to question why such hard times have fallen upon the nation and he orders them to impress it upon their children that nothing like this has happened since the founding of the nation. "Tell it to your children, and let your children tell their children, and their children to the next generation." (Joel 1:3) It's better to learn from the mistakes of others than to make those same mistakes ourselves, isn't it? Things have gone wrong spiritually in the nation and now other things are going wrong. If these elders can impress this information upon the hearts and minds of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren then perhaps these succeeding generations won't make the same spiritual mistakes. If spiritual mistakes are avoided, then some hardships can be avoided as well. Of course, as long as we live in this fallen world there are going to be hardships that occur that are not of our own making, but there's no doubt that we all make mistakes and that we have all caused trouble for ourselves at one time or another.
As we move on through Chapter 1 we will find Joel urging the people to break out of their complacency. They need to "clean house" individually, in their own hearts, and they need to "clean house" as a nation. They need to remember who they are---a people who call themselves by the name of the Lord---and consider how far they have drifted from the right paths.
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