Joel 1:1-20

The Day of the Lord

Joel

Roy Rohu

About this book

Joel tells us his father’s name, but he says nothing about himself. Some students think that he wrote his book about 850 years before the birth of Jesus. Other students think that he wrote it about 330 years later than that. The really important thing is that Joel has a message from God.

Nearly all God’s people have forgotten to love God. And they have forgotten to obey him. So God allows bad things to happen. There is no rain. (Look at Joel 1:20.) The plants do not grow well and insects come to eat them (Joel 1:4). And these things are only a beginning.

Joel tells the people to think about these bad things. (Look at Joel 1:2-13; Joel 1:15-20.) He tells the people to change their attitude to God (Joel 1:14; Joel 2:12-17). He tells them that they should love God again, as they did before. And they should obey him again. If they do this, then God will do good things for them (Joel 2:18-20; Joel 2:32). God will send his *Holy Spirit to them (Joel 2:28).

Joel then tells the people about a special day that is coming. He calls that day ‘the Day of the *Lord’. (Look at Joel 3:14.) On that day, great things will happen (Joel 2:28-32). God will punish his people’s enemies (Joel 3:1-21). Then God will give peace to his people again (Joel 3:16; Joel 3:20).

Contents of the Book

1:1-12 *Locusts eat all the plants in *Israel

1:13-20 Joel tells people to *repent

2:1-11 The army of *locusts

2:12-17 Show to the *Lord that you are sorry

2:18-27 The *Lord’s answer

2:28-32 The Day of the *Lord

3:1-15 The *Lord *judges the nations

3:16-21 God will do good things for his people

*Locusts

Joel talks about an army of *locusts. In chapter 1, it seems that the *locusts are real *locusts. Later, Joel talks again about an army of *locusts. Many students think that, this time, he means an army of soldiers. So there is an army that consists of *locusts. And there is also an army that consists of soldiers. Both these armies come to make God’s people think. God’s people need to think about why these armies come. Joel explains it all in this book.

Chapter 1

*Locusts eat all the plants in *Israel

v1 This is the *Lord’s message that came to Joel, Pethuel’s son.

v2 You older men, listen to this! Listen, all people that live in this country.

Nothing like this has happened while you have been alive.

Nothing like this happened while your fathers were alive.

v3 Tell this to your children,

and let them tell it to their children.

And let their children tell it to their own children.

v4 The older *locusts have eaten what the young *locusts left.

The oldest *locusts have eaten what the older *locusts left.

Other *locusts have eaten what the oldest *locusts left.

v5 Wake up, you drunks.

Weep, all people who drink *wine!

Weep, because you will have no new *wine.

Someone has taken it away from you.

Joel wants everyone to think carefully about his message. It is God’s message.

The old people should notice, because this message is new and different. They have not heard it before. Old people should be wiser than young people. Old people should have learnt from their lives how to be wise.

Joel wants the children to give attention to the message.

Even children who are not yet born should hear the message. That shows us that Joel’s message is for everyone. It is not just for the people that Joel is speaking to. Also nowadays, God’s people can give attention to Joel’s message and they should do so. It is always time to give attention to God.

Joel wants people who have drunk too much *wine to wake up. He wants them to listen to the message, too.

Joel wants the farmers to understand why bad things are happening. (Look at verse 11.)

Joel wants the *priests to wake up. And he wants them to call the people back to God. (Look at verses 13 and 14.)

v6 *Locusts have come to fill my country.

They are powerful and they are very many.

They have teeth like strong animals’ teeth.

Their teeth are long and dangerous.

The *Hebrew in verse 6 is ‘A nation has come to fill my country’. But we think that it means an enormous number of *locusts.

The insects called *locusts destroy plants. When there is no food, God’s people will listen to him.

‘My country’ means God’s country. His country is special to him. But he allows *locusts to come and they damage it. He does that because he loves his people very much. So he does not want to let them go away from him.

v7 They have broken my *vines

and they have destroyed my *fig trees.

They bit off all the skin from the stems.

Then they threw the bare stems away.

They have left the branches white.

v8 Weep like a girl that no man ever had sex with.

The man who promised to be her husband is dead. That is why she is weeping.

v9 Nobody can give food or drink for the *Lord’s house.

The *priests, the *Lord’s servants,

are very, very sad.

v10 The fields are no good.

They are all dry.

The new *wine has dried up.

The oil has all gone.

v11 Weep, you farmers! Yes, weep!

You who grow *vines, weep!

Be sad about the seeds that have not become food.

Be sad because the fields are dry. And the plants have died.

v12 The *vine has dried up

and the *fig tree is dead.

The apple trees and the other fruit trees have dried up.

All the trees have dried up.

Men have no more joy.

It has all gone.

Joel tells people to *repent

v13 You *priests and servants of God, wear special clothes to show that you are sad.

Even sleep in those clothes.

Cry, you *priests!

Cry, you who serve God at his *altar.

Cry about the food and drink that came as gifts.

Cry, because they do not come to the house of your God any more.

The *priests should be the first people to act. They are God’s special servants. They should call everyone to God’s house. And they should tell them to come back to God.

The *priests cannot offer the usual meat and *wine to God, because they have none. That is why the ceremonies in God’s house have had to stop. The *priests should be very, very sad about it.

v14 Tell everyone to eat no food.

Instead, call all the people together to hear the *Lord.

Call the older leaders.

And call all the people who live in this country.

They must come to the house of the *Lord, your God.

They must cry out to the *Lord there.

v15 Be afraid of that day,

because the Day of the *Lord is near.

It will be as if the great God wants to destroy all things.

Other *prophets also speak about the Day of the *Lord. Those *prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, and Zechariah. So God wants everyone to think about the special day that he will cause to happen. Joel also talks about that day in Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1-2; Joel 2:31 and 3:14. Now people should know how important it is.

Many of God’s people have stopped loving God. They are not trying to please him. They do not care about God’s laws or about his promises. And they think that God does not notice. So Joel now warns the people that God is their ruler. The Day of the *Lord is a day with great and awful troubles. God will bring that day if his people do not come back to him. That is the day that Joel is talking about. It is like the day in Revelation 6:16-17.

v16 No food has come to his special house.

We saw this with our own eyes.

So the house of our God cannot make us happy any more.

The animals have no grass to eat. So there can be no meat for the *priests to offer to God. The people will have no meat to eat either.

v17 The seeds under the earth are dry.

The places where people stored seeds have fallen down.

Someone has broken those places up

because the seed does not grow.

The people do not use those places because there is nothing to put in them.

v18 The cows make a sad noise.

They all move about

because they cannot find any grass.

Even groups of sheep are hungry.

v19 I call to you, my *Lord.

Fire has destroyed the grass in the fields

and it has burned up all the trees.

v20 Even the wild animals are *thirsty.

They want you to help them.

The rivers that had water have dried up.

Fire has destroyed the grass, even in the wild places.

Even the animals seem to know that it is a time to be sad. But God’s own people do not know why bad things are happening. They seem not to care.

holy ~ very, very good; only God is really holy; the place where he lives with his people is also holy because he is there.
Lord ~ a name that we call God when we obey him.
locust ~ an insect that moves in big groups. It is always very hungry and it eats all green plants.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.
repent ~ to be sorry about a wrong deed and to try to correct that wrong thing.
locust ~ an insect that moves in big groups. It is always very hungry and it eats all green plants.
judge ~ to say what is good or bad.
priest ~ a man who gave gifts and burned animals as gifts to God for the Israelites; a man whom God chose to serve him and to do special work for him.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Israelites spoke.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
vine ~ a plant that climbs. People make *wine from its fruits.
fig ~ sweet fruit that grows on a tree.
altar ~ a place where people burned animals or other things as gifts to God.
prophet ~ a person who tells God’s message to people. That person can sometimes say what will happen in the future.
thirsty ~ when a person or animal wants something to drink.