Joel 2: The Locust Cometh

Over the past few weeks at church, I've been drawn several times towards the book of Joel, and specifically chapter 2. Not a hugely well-known passage, but I think it's got a good and powerful message, and it's one that I'm going to try to draw out briefly here.

Joel's one of the minor prophets - his book isn't very long at all, and it's not very wide-ranging in subject matter (it deals mostly with a major locust swarm, likely one that really did ravage Israel some time in the centuries before Christ), but he has a lot to tell us. In structure, the chapter breaks into four main sections.

1-11: The Army of the Lord
The first section is, frankly, terrifying. It opens with a trumpet call sounding the alarm as a vast army appears on the horizon and sweeps across the land. We're told that the land goes from Eden-like paradise to a desert waste when they pass by, and they're compared to fire, cavalry, chariots, warriors and thieves - basically a laundry list of the scariest things the people of Israel had to worry about.

In verse 10 we're shown that this army is affecting even the heavens, as the sun and moon are darkened and the stars no longer shine: this may be a reference to the locusts being thick enough to block out the sky, but there's probably also some symbolic meaning there. The sun and moon being affected is a very rare occurrence in the Bible, and the only two occasions that I can immediately think of are Joshua's victory over the Amorites in Joshua 10, and Jesus' death - both of them times when God's presence in this world is very keenly felt. The message here is that this event is not normal - God is involved.

That idea is then strengthened in verse 11, as it becomes clear that this army of locusts is that of the Lord himself. At that point, all hope seems lost. If God himself has turned his army against Israel, who will stand? As the end of verse 11 puts it, "The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful."

12-17: The People Turn Back
So, what can the people of God do when faced with this terrible judgement? The answer is given straight away in verse 12: they must return to him. Not in a big showy way ("rend your heart, not your garments"), but "with all your heart". The promise is immediate, that God "relents from sending calamity".

Joel immediately launches into a passage here describing what the people must do to carry out this command, and it's fitting that he draws a parallel with the first section. Again, we start with a trumpet call, but instead of an alarm this one is a declaration of a fast. As the locusts gathered to destroy the land, so are the people to gather to pray for it. And it's everyone: the elders, the children, the babies, brides and grooms, people and priests. No-one is too far gone to turn back, no-one so good that they don't need to.

The last parallel in this section is possibly the most moving. Where God thundered at the head of his army in verse 11, his priests respond in verse 17, pleading with God to spare his people. Even the place where they do it is important: they stand "between the portico and the altar", which means that they are at the entrance to the Temple. They stand where they can be seen by both God and the people, in the gap between God's judgement and the judged.

18-27: Blessings in the Body
Exactly as he promised, God hears the cry of his people! He promises not just grain and oil, but also wine, and not just any wine but new wine. The obvious reference here is Jesus talking about new wine in new wineskins, but it goes much deeper than that: grain, oil and new wine are the three things listed in several different places in the OT as being the firstfruits of the land, a sign of blessing (Numbers 18:12, Deuteronomy 7:13, and others).

That's not where God's blessings end, though. He also promises to drive the locusts into the sea, to make the pastures green and to send the rains. Even the wild animals get to enjoy it - God's blessing is not only on the people, but also the land.

What's more, God promises to make good the damage that his judgement has done, in his promise to repay the years the locust has eaten. Verse 25's four different words for "locust" are apparently a bit difficult to translate, judging by the footnotes, but the point here is that all the damage is going to be reversed; in as many ways as God has judged his people, so is he going to bless them.

28-32: Blessings in the Spirit
Lastly, Joel makes it clear that God isn't just going to bless his people materially, but he is also going to pour out his Spirit upon them. Visions and dreams are prophesied for the whole community; much as everyone was to pray for deliverance, so everyone will be blessed in greater knowledge of the Lord.

Notice the parallels here, too, between the destruction of the locusts and the blessings of the Spirit. The signs that the people will witness will include blood and fire and billows of smoke, much like the imagery used to describe the locusts but now wonderfully turned around to herald the coming King. The sun and moon were darkened by the locust swarm as it came to destroy; now they will dim as the Lord approaches in power. And where verse 11 asked of the day of the Lord, "who can endure it?", verse 32 answers joyfully that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved".

So where does that leave us, as a modern-day people of God? Well, the chapter has four main messages for us. We are to know God as our King and take him seriously, because while he is good and kind, he is also the judge of all the earth. We are to turn to him, as there is nothing else in this world that can save us. We are to trust him for our needs, because he has promised that we will be filled. And we are to stand in the power of the Spirit, ready to work for his glory and look for his return.

Not a bad message for a minor prophet, eh?