When I was younger they called them “calamity howlers!” Or purveyors of “doomsday!” Today, merely “pessimists,” I guess. Or are they “realists?” Those who presciently realize that disaster is rapidly approaching!
Well, the Old Testament Prophet Joel would have qualified on all the foregoing terms!
He, all the way through his short 3 chapter (only 73 verses) Document, WARNS of danger, to the people of Israel, of Judah.
In chapter 1 he cautions about “natural disaster.”
In chapter 2, about “political (national) disaster.”
And in chapter 3 about “global (worldwide) cosmic disaster!”
In other words, an ever expanding circle of calamity!
Today I’ve posed this question, “To whom is Joel writing in chapter 1, the specific people who should respond (in some way) to the literal insect invasion that had recently occurred?
First mentioned … all the citizens of Israel, the “old men” specifically and the nation’s “inhabitants” generally. “Hear this, ye OLD MEN, and give ear, ALL YE INHABITANTS of the land.” Joel 1:2
Secondly … the alcoholics among the Jews! “Awake, ye DRUNKARDS, and weep; and howl, all ye DRINKERS OF WINE, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.” Joel 1:5
Thirdly … the farmers of the land. “The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye HUSBANDMEN; howl, O ye VINEDRESSERS, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” Joel 1:10-12
Then, to the priests, God’ s men. “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye PRIESTS: howl, ye MINISTERS OF THE ALTAR: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye MINISTERS OF MY GOD: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord.” Joel 1:13-14
Bottom line, everyone is impacted, suffers, is to grieve.
And these “locusts” are merely a “minor” irritation compared to what is on the horizon for (spiritually lackadaisical) Israel. Remember, Joel chapters 2 and 3 are yet to be studied! And in some ways yet to be fulfilled!
Is there a Lesson for us today, in Joel’s opening Message?
Yes, of course.
“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Paul in Second Corinthians 10:11
“All these things,” including that locust plague!
“Them,” as in the Jews of Joel’s day!
“Ensamples” (in Greek “tupos,” or “types”), impressive teaching tools of the Holy Spirit!
“Our admonition,” literally “to put us in mind,” to warn us!
“The ends of the world,” the latter days in which we now live, for sure!
Wow!
More than “locusts” may be invading the United States of America!
At this very moment.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell