Day 255 (Joel 1-3) - Year 4
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we finished our 31st book of the Bible. It was written by the minor prophet Joel. We don't know anything about him, even when he lived, but based on context clues, we can narrow it down to about a 300-year time frame, with the most recent part of that being post-exile. He makes references to the temple, so we just know it's either before 586 B.C. or after 516 B.C.

Some think this book prophesies the Babylonian invasion, so they place it pre-exile, in the same time period as the prophets we've already been reading. Others think this was written post-exile, because he addresses his letter to the elders, not to a king, and that's who would have been in charge of things after they returned from exile. But based on where it's placed in this plan, it seems like the people at Blue Letter Bible who put the plan together lean more toward pre-exile. So imagine this being written around the same time Ezekiel wrote his book.

Joel contains a lot of mystery. In addition to not really knowing who he is or when he lived, he also tends to be more vague than most other prophets. He doesn't name any of Israel's sins specifically, unlike other prophets, and he barely mentions which enemy nations he's referring to. As with most prophecy, this is going to be another zoom-out book where we look at the big picture more than the details.

The book opens with a plague of locusts who've swarmed the land. In scripture, armies are often compared to invading locusts, but here, Joel flips the metaphor and compares locusts to an invading army. This locust swarm isn't just a nuisance, it's a total agricultural devastation. Verse 7 says they've destroyed the vines and fig trees, both of which are things locusts only attack after they've already eaten everything else. Apparently, vines and fig trees are the locust version of pizza crust—

Who knew? When locusts eat everything, they move on. But their damage will impact the people for years to come because it takes a long time for plants and trees to grow back and bear fruit again. On top of lacking food for themselves, the people also lack grain and wine and oil for daily offerings at the temple. Joel tells the priest to lament and call for a fast.

Biblical lamenting can be an expression of grief, and it can also be an expression of repentance, which means to change directions. And fasting, as we see it in Scripture, always describes abstaining from food specifically, and it's often adjacent to mourning and repenting too. So even though Joel never names a specific sin, his call to fasting and repentance show us that he views this disaster as a consequence of something the people have done wrong.

which fits with the way the old covenant, the conditional covenant, worked between God and his people. In chapter 2, Joel says a day of judgment is coming. This is the day of the Lord, which we've read about many times, and he seems to point to a future military invasion, as though these locusts are foreshadowing it. And according to verse 11, this invading army will be sent there by God himself.

There seems to be a hope that God will relent from this disaster because right after the promise of judgment, he issues a call to repentance, which is often his way of providing a way of escape. God wants the people to truly repent, not just so the bugs will go away or the army won't come, but because their hearts are turned toward him and they truly want to walk in his ways. He wants them to draw near to him out of delight, not as a form of escapism. There's a difference and God knows it. Here's an analogy.

One of my friends jokes about how her favorite seat in her house is her toilet because that's the only place she can get a moment of peace and quiet sometimes. Does my friend go into her bathroom because she really loves it? No, she just hates chaos. Do we treat God like our bathroom sometimes? Probably.

But does he shame us for that? No. But he knows there's more available for us. Because he's not just a refuge in times of trouble, he's also our song of joy. God tells the people, don't just come to me because you're in trouble. Come to me, but bring your broken heart, not the clothes you've torn in some kind of surface-level repentance.

And in this passage, Joel quotes the verses we've seen so much in our reading, Exodus 34, 6-7, where God tells Moses who he is. Joel reminds the people who God has always been and says, We don't know what he'll do, but we know who he is. So repent.

Then in verse 18, God responds. It says, What does it mean that God became jealous for his land? We've talked about this before, but to be jealous for something is different than being jealous or envious of something. God is jealous for his people and for his land. It's a way of saying he has an appropriate possessiveness that wants what's best in the situation.

And because he wants what's best for them, he promises to send them the things they lacked for the daily offerings, grain and wine and oil. He'll get rid of the invading army from the north, and the fig tree and the vine will bloom again. Hooray for pizza crust!

God even tells the land and the animals not to be afraid. He also promises to send the early and the late rain. Early rain is autumn rain. Late rain is spring rain. If you have a Western mindset, those terms probably feel like they're mislabeled. Shouldn't the early rain be in the spring since that comes first in the year? But it makes sense in Jewish culture because their new year starts in the fall, and it's also the time when the rainy season begins, right after harvest.

And in a sweet turn of events, God says he will restore the damage the locusts did, the locusts that he sent among them. He will restore all that was lost through his necessary punishment of their sins.

He also makes some really beautiful promises for the future. In this section, we seem to have more of the dual prophecy thing happening again, where there's a partial fulfillment in the centuries to come, and there will be a complete fulfillment in the end times. For instance, in 2.28, he says, Several hundred years later, a week after Jesus ascended to heaven, God the Spirit came to dwell in God's people.

In 232, he says that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved and that all those who are saved are those whom God has called. That's happening. But there are also things about these prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled. For instance, he also promises some cosmic phenomenon, but it's always hard to know if these things are figurative or literal. Like, will the sun actually be blotted out? Or does that just mean that all the false gods and ruling powers apart from Yahweh will be defeated?

As I've said before, I always try to hold this stuff with an open hand because I truly have no idea. In this section, God also says he'll bring his people, and all people it seems, back to the land for what sounds like a war at first, but is possibly just God's judgment day for the nations, and that from then on, only he and his kids will live in Zion. He talks again about the desert blooming and the stream that flows from the temple, just like we read about yesterday in Ezekiel 47.

My God shot showed up eight times in this short book. It was all the spots where Joel quotes scripture. In just three chapters, he references seven other prophets and the book of Exodus. Joel knows the scriptures. And because of that, he knows that scripture not only helps explain Israel's current situation, but it also helps him keep a true perspective for the future.

So that's what this text shows me about Joel, but what does that show me about God? We already know that God wants us to read his word because he wants to be known, but this section shows me that he also wants us to read his word because he cares about how hopeful we are. Romans 15.4 points to this same idea. It's talking about the Old Testament scriptures, and it says, "...these things were written that you might have hope."

The more we know God and His Word, the more hopeful we will be. Not hope in our desired outcome, but hope in Him. Period. Do you feel that kind of hope on the increase as you read these Old Testament books? Did you ever think you'd find this much hope on these pages? I didn't. God has surprised me with hope.

And from fixing his eyes on Scripture, Joel has learned both God's track record from the past and God's promises for the future. Joel knows where hope is found. Joel knows he's where the joy is. Tomorrow we'll be starting the book of Daniel. It's 12 chapters long, and it's got a lot going on. So I would really encourage you to watch the short video overview in the show notes that will really help you understand this better. Check it out if you've got eight minutes to spare.

Are you struggling in the reading plan? This might be a good time to hit the reset button by going back and listening to our six prep episodes, either again or for the first time. They're super helpful, even if you've been with us for months. You can listen to them all in about an hour. Swipe up for a link to prep episode one in today's show notes or search for it in your app. Hopefully that will be just the refresher you need to keep showing up every day. I believe God has some incredible things for you in those episodes.

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