Joel 1:4-12

THE EXTENT OF THE PLEA FOR REPENTANCE; VIVID, ARRESTING

TEXT: Joel 1:4-12

4

That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.

5

Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

6

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

7

He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

8

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

9

The meal-offering and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah's ministers, mourn.

10

The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.

11

Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.

12

The vine is withered, 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: for joy is withered away from the sons of men.

QUERIES

a.

What are the different insects described by Joel?

b.

Who is the nation come upon the land of Judah?

c.

What would the significance of the cutting off of meat and drink offering be for the people?

PARAPHRASE

What the first plague of locusts leaves after it has eaten all it wishes, others will come swarming the land and eat; what they leave others will come hopping all over the earth eating as much as they will and if they leave any, still others will come to destroy all that is left. You had better sober up from your drunken stupor you notorious drunkards and weep and howl because the fresh sweet juice of the grape has completely perished. A mighty, numberless horde of hostile enemies has invaded my land. Their teeth are as fierce and strong as lion's teeth. They have ruined my vines and stripped the bark off my fig trees and left their trunks and branches bare and white. Mourn as a maiden mourns whose fiance has died. So complete is the devastation there is not enough grain or wine left to make an offering in the Temple. The priests who minister before the Lord mourn; the farm land wastes away and seems to mourn because it bears no produce at all; neither grain nor grape nor olive. Turn pale with disappointment you people and howl you vine dressers because the whole harvest is gone. Every growing plant or tree; whether it be grape vine, fig, pomegranate, palm or apple it has withered; indeed, all of man's gladness has withered and been consumed. There is no joy at all among the people.

SUMMARY

Through successive plagues of swarming locusts the grain and fruit, in fact all vegetation, is being utterly consumed. Even the land is represented as mourning over the desolation.

COMMENT

Joel 1:4 THAT WHICH THE PALMER-WORM HATH LEFT.; There are some who think Joel has given us here four different stages in the development of the one species of locust. Others think we have here four different species of locusts. Palmer-word means gnawer-shearer; locust -may be defined the multitudinous one; canker-worm means licker, lapper, or hopper; caterpillar means devourer, stripper. Dr. Laetsch, in The Minor Prophets, Bible Commentary, pub. Concordia, comments, Locust, would emphasize the immense masses, the other three terms, their insatiable voracity, We prefer to explain Joel's use of these four terms as simply a designation of successive stages of the plague of locusts. In other words the locusts came upon the land one increment after another in immediate succession until the land was stripped of all vegetation and then the Lord caused a great drought to come upon the land (cf. Joel 1:17-20). The use of the number four probably symbolizes completeness (cf. Isaiah 11:12; Jeremiah 15:3; Ezekiel 1:5-6; Amos 1:3 ff). Lange and Keil and Delitzsch agree that the proper name is locust while the other terms are figurative, poetic terms to describe the completeness of the work of these great hordes, one after another.

In the December, 1915, issue of The National Geographic Magazine, there is a vivid description of a locust plague covering all of Palestine and Syria, by John D. Whiting. According to this account the swarms of locusts appeared in March, coming from the northeast, going toward the southwest in such thick clouds they obscured the sun from sight. The females, about three inches long, began immediately to lay eggs, sinking a hole about four inches deep into the hard soil and depositing about one hundred eggs in a neat cylindrical arrangement (about an inch long and as large as a lead pencil) all enclosed in a glue-like substance. As many as 75,000 eggs may be concentrated in less than one square yard of soil. Once the female locust has laid the eggs, her life's mission is done. She flies awaywhereto no one can sayand soon dies. Within a few weeks the young locusts are hatched. They resemble large black ants (having no wings) when first hatched. A few days after hatching they start their forward march of about 600 feet per day, clearing the ground of all vegetation before them. They hop forward much like fleas. At the end of May they molt, issuing forth in the pupa state, still unable to fly, standing upright. In this stage they leap only when frightened, using their two long and powerful hind-legs. In the last molt the wings emerge from their membranous sacs where they have been developing and the locust can now fly. After a few days in the flying stage the color of their bodies deepen into a pronounced red effect. We shall refer again to Mr. Whiting's account as we proceed with our comments.

Joel 1:5 AWAKE, YE DRUNKARDS, AND WEEP; The original language indicates those addressed here were in a drunken sleep so sound as to be snoring. It indicates that drunkenness was widespread and stupefying. The prophet admonishes the wine-bibbers to come to their senses, recognize the warning of God in the devastation and weep and mourn in repentance. The sweet wine, or, new wine was spoken of as being found within the grape still in the cluster (cf. Isaiah 65:8) and there was great rejoicing when it was first pressed from the grape for it was considered a special blessing from the Lord. Now it was cut offthere was no new sweet wine to be found anywhere in all the land!

Joel 1:6 FOR A NATION. WITHOUT NUMBER. TEETH OF A LION; The prophet portrays the locusts as a nation, a people, and this figure is used by the writer of Proverbs to picture ants and badgers (cf. Proverbs 30:25-26). This is a figure well chosen since locusts give the appearance of being a well organized army of people. Joel's graphic description of their behavior in chapter 2 illustrates why they should be called a nation. Their teeth, though tiny, are the weapons of this army. In proportion to their very small bodies, their jaws are even stronger than a lion'S.

Joel 1:7 HE HATH LAID MY VINE WASTE. BARKED MY FIG-TREE. CLEAN BARE AND CAST IT AWAY; Whiting writes: Once entering a vineyard the sprawling vines would in the shortest time be nothing but bare bark. When the daintier morsels were gone, the bark was eaten off the young topmost branches, which, after exposed to the sun bleached snow-white. Then, seemingly out of malice, they would gnaw off small limbs, perhaps to get at the pith within. God, the Giver and Owner of the vineyards and orchards, speaks through the prophet, calling them His vines and His fig trees.

Joel 1:8-9 LAMENT LIKE A VIRGIN. THE MEAL-OFFERING. CUT OFF FROM THE HOUSE OF JEHOVAH. PRIESTS. MOURN; Now the prophet calls upon the whole nation to mourn. This is a mourning not only because of the loss of wine and grain but because the loss of these material things have disrupted divine worship. There is not even enough grain or wine to be found to make up an acceptable offering in the Temple. The prophet calls for a godly sorrow that worketh repentance (cf. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10)! Their sorrow is to be one of total immersionlike the sorrow of a newly married maiden who has lost her husband by death in the first few days of marriage. God's bride, the covenant people, has been cut off from communion with her Husband. She should lament and weepher attitude should be one of heartfelt mourning. The cessation of the daily sacrifices and offerings was for all practical purposes a cessation of covenant relationa sign that God had rejected His people. Even in the last siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D., the sacrificial worship was not suspended till it had been brought to the last extremity; and even then it was because there were none to offer the sacrifices and not because there were no more materials to sacrifice.

Joel 1:10-12 THE FIELD IS LAID WASTE. BE CONFOUNDED. WAIL. THE HARVEST OF THE FIELD IS PERISHED. EVEN ALL THE TREES OF THE FIELD ARE WITHERED; FOR JOY IS WITHERED AWAY FROM THE SONS OF MEN, Whiting records that in 1915 the locusts he observed in Palestine appeared in their fully developed flying stage about June 10 and began at once to complete the destruction begun in the earlier stages. They attacked the olive trees, whose tough, bitter leaves had not been to the liking of the creepers. Food becoming scarcer, both creeping and flying locusts attacked the olive trees, and between the two they stripped every leaf, berry, and even the tender bark. Likewise every variety of tree was attacked with the sole exception of the Persian lilac and the oleander bushes. Of the cacti they ate away layer after layer over the whole surface, giving the leaves the effect of having been jack-planed. Even on the scarce and prized palms they had no pity, gnawing off the tender ends of the sword like branches, and, diving deep into the heart, they tunneled after the juicy pith. The destruction of the present grain crops in Joel's day would also mean no harvest for next year since there would be no seed with which to sow another crop. The absence of grain and all other green vegetation would also probably mean the death of many animals. The drought which accompanied this locust plague would certainly decimate animal life and many people probably starved to death also. The whole nation had fallen into the hands of a chastening God. There was plague, drought, famine and as a result the worship of God in the Temple through offerings and sacrifices has been forced to a cessation. There was both physical and spiritual starvation. Truly, joy had withered away from the sons of men!

QUIZ

1.

How do we know that Joel's interpretation of what this locust plague should mean to the people is not his own?

2.

How did Joel intend the people use this unprecedented historical event for teaching purposes?

3.

Why does Joel, describe the locusts in four different terms?

4.

Why admonish the drunkards to awake?

5.

How ferocious are the locusts in their attack upon the vegetation?

6.

To what extent are the people to mourn and why?

7.

How extensive is the destruction of the locust?