We concluded yesterday's session with these words: "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." (Joel 1:13) The locusts have destroyed the crops in the field and the fruit on the vines and the fruit on the trees. This has caused a cessation of grain and drink offerings at the house of God. The disaster has affected every facet of life in the nation and has affected every person in every occupation.
The nation of Judah hasn't gone into spiritual decline as quickly as the northern kingdom of Israel but in Joel's day there had been much idolatry taking place in the very recent past. Joel's ministry likely began after King Jehoshaphat's reign ended. King Jehoshaphat had arranged a marriage between his son Jehoram and a daughter of the Baal-worshiping King Ahab and Queen Jezebel of Israel. Jehoram and his wife, Athaliah, forsook the Lord in favor of Baal. Jehoram reigned for eight years and was succeeded by his son, Ahaziah, who only reigned for one year before he was killed, but he was an idolater too. Upon his death his mother Athaliah ordered all the males of the royal household put to death and she took the throne of Judah for herself, not knowing that her youngest grandson, Joash, had been hidden away and had escaped the slaughter. Most scholars believe that Joel began his work as a prophet somewhere around the time the evil Athaliah was promoting Baal worship in Judah; Joel almost certainly was a prophet to Judah during the reign of her grandson Joash. So the prophet is speaking to the people during a time when the past three rulers---Athaliah, Ahaziah, and Jehoram---had rejected the Lord and when these wicked rulers had been encouraging or even insisting that the people of Judah worship Baal along with them. The people need to cast aside all forms of idolatry and turn back to the living God.
To demonstrate their sorrow over their sin, the people are to fast and pray to the Lord. "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." (Joel 1:14) The Lord is the One they have offended. The Lord is the One who can restore the prosperity of the land. The Lord is the only One who can make them clean of their sin and restore their relationship with Him.
"Alas for that day! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty." (Joel 1:15) The phrase "the day of the Lord" is typically used in the Scriptures to denote the judgment that will fall upon the earth in the end times. The people of Judah are not living in the end times in Joel's day but the current disaster of his day is quite severe and it's a foretaste of the wrath that will come in the era known as "the great tribulation". The locusts have done a great deal of damage already but more judgment will fall if the people don't immediately turn their hearts back toward the Lord and begin repenting of their waywardness. Joel compares the current distress to the tribulation of the last days because the locust invasion is a demonstration of the Lord's displeasure with sin (as will be the disasters of the great tribulation) and a demonstration of the Lord's judgment upon sin (as will be the disasters of the great tribulation). Joel clearly makes a connection here, as he did in our first two days of the study of this book, between the plague of locusts and the people's unfaithfulness to God.
Things are bad but they are not so bad that they cannot get worse! The time to repent is now. "Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes---joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up. How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering." (Joel 1:16-18) The prophet's words indicate that there may be a drought in addition to the plague of locusts because he speaks of the earth as if it has not rained upon it. The seeds have shriveled up, unable to sprout, beneath dry clods of dirt. Both man and beast are suffering the effects of these terrible circumstances.
What must they do---what should anyone do---in times of adversity? Cry out to the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth! Cry out to the Lord for forgiveness, for help in living in ways that please Him, and for healing of the land. "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. Even the wild animals pant for You; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness." (Joel 1:19-20) Again we find references that indicate a drought. The pasture grasses have dried up in the heat. The leaves have withered on the vines of fruit trees and shrubs. There is no water to relieve the scorching heat. The streams have dried up. It sounds as if wild animals and fish are perishing, making food even more scarce because people can't hunt and fish successfully.
It is possible, as we discussed earlier in the book of Joel, that the reference to "locusts" could be a reference to invasions by the Assyrians. Some scholars hold to that theory, although the majority of scholars believe a literal plague of locusts occurred. But the mention of meadows and fields and vineyards being destroyed would still be in line with an enemy invasion, for a common tactic of enemy invaders was to set fire to fields of grain and to vegetable gardens and to allow their war horses to trample crops underfoot. It's possible that the locusts aren't literal locusts, but even if the destruction is caused by an enemy army we know this is something the Lord allowed to happen. The calamity is from the Lord; that much has been made clear to us by Joel. And an enemy army couldn't cause a drought, so that is from the Lord who is withholding rain from the skies until repentance takes place.
The Lord does not enjoy sending hardship. He would far rather be pouring out upon Judah the blessings listed in Deuteronomy 28 rather than the curses listed in Deuteronomy 28. But He's allowing hardship for their own good to get them back onto the right path. And whenever the Lord allows hardship, He usually begins with the least severe forms of hardship. If repentance takes place then, there is no need to send more severe troubles. But if repentance does not take place, more unpleasant circumstances are likely to follow. Joel is telling the people they can save themselves much worse trouble than they are already experiencing if they will go ahead and make things right with God. If they persist in stubborn disobedience, not only will the current circumstances not clear up, but worse circumstances will follow.
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