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About Jesus Steve Sweetman My Commentary On Joel This Section - Chapter :1 - 12 Previous Section - Introduction Next Section - Chapter 1:13 - 20
An
Invasion Of Locusts (ch. 1:1-12) There is some difference of opinion
whether the events of this chapter are a literal historical event or a
pictorial prophetic illustration of coming judgment on Israel. One's viewpoint partially
depends on when one thinks Joel penned this prophecy, and, as I've said,
that is highly debatable. Many scholars suggest that these
events are both historic and prophetic, meaning, that there was a literal
infestation of locust in Israeli history which prophetically speaking,
symbolizes a future event. This kind of prophetic history is very possible
for there are other places in the Bible where a historical event predicts
the future, or, has a secondary prophetic meaning.
Antiochus
Epiphanies was a Greek polytheistic king who ruled from 175 BC to 164 BC.
During his rule he attacked Jerusalem
as predicted in Daniel 11:31. His
attack is one historical event that has future prophetic significance in
two or possibly three ways. Daniel
11:31 predicts what we call the abomination of desolation.
Antiochus and his armies invaded Jerusalem
as I've said and desecrated the Jewish temple by offering a pig as a
sacrificial offering to Zeus. That
was a real historical event. It was clearly an abomination of desolation
that Daniel predicted. Jesus,
in Matthew 24:15, spoke of Daniel 11:31 as a future prophetic event which
has one or two fulfillments, depending on your prophetic positioning.
The attack on Jerusalem
in 70 AD by the Roman army could be seen as an abomination of desolation
on the temple. Most people
believe it was and might well be what Jesus had in mind when he spoke
these words. That being said,
the context of Jesus' statement, as Prophetic Futurists suggest, tells us
that this abomination of desolation will take place at the end of this age
by the anti-Christ during the tribulation
period that ends this age. Therefore,
Daniel 11:31 has two or three fulfillments.
Another thing to consider when
thinking of these invading locust is that many Bible teachers view them as
invading armies that attack Israel. I think you can see this
when we read the rest of Joel's book.
The invading armies might be several invasions on Israel
over the centuries. They might
well speak of 4 specific invasions, but which ones, would again depend on
when you think Joel penned this book. They also might be 4 different
advances of enemy armies on To sum up what you are about to read
in chapter 1, some believe the locust invasion was a literal invasion.
Some think it was not a literal invasion but picture language to
describe an invasion of Israel's enemies, either back in Joel's day or a day yet to come.
Whatever the case, I see that much in this book concerns the end of
the age in which we live. Joel
called it the Day of the Lord. You will see that there are 4 specific
locusts seen in chapter 1. In
some versions of the Bible they appear as different types of insects, but,
from the Hebrew text, they are 4 different stages in the life's
development of a locust.
Verse 1 opens with the words "the
Word of the Lord that came to Joel." God
spoke certain words to Joel that were prophetic. The Word of the Lord does
not necessarily have to be prophetic, as in foretelling the future. God’s
Word can take the form of instruction, encouragement, or an admonishment. It
might just be that all these various forms of the Word of the Lord are
seen in the book of Joel. In verse 2 we see that Joel is
addressing his words to the elders of For
the most part, one can consider Old Testament Jewish elders as being more
civic leaders than religious leaders.
The priests were the religious leaders. Because of the nature of the old
Hebrew language some Bible teachers and translators suggest that Joel is
not addressing elders but older men. We
see the same difficulty in 1 Peter 5:5.
1 Peter 1:1 speaks of church elders, church leaders, but, verse 5
may speak of older men or elders. Some
versions of both Joel and 1 Peter translate the original word as
"elders" while others translate it as "older men."
Joel asks this question. "Has
anything ever happened like this before?" The
obvious answer would be "no."
This event has never happened on this scale before, or depending on
your view, something like what Joel is picturing has never happened
before. So, what Joel will speak to, was it a real event or is this a prophetic pictorial illustration? I can't say for sure, but it might well be a real event that took place in Israeli history, but, with prophetic significance. Whatever the case, I do believe this invasion of locust has great prophetic significance. It is a pictorial prophecy of the period of time that ends this age. It
would not surprise me if the 144,000 Jewish men we see in Revelation 7 who
Prophetic Futurists see as 144,000 evangelists will preach from the book
of Joel. I also think that the
2 witnesses would preach from the book of Joel as well as the other Old
Testament prophetic writings.
No matter how you interpret the events
of this chapter, in verse 3 Joel wants Israelis to pass these words on to
their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, and so on down
the line. These words must have significance beyond the people to whom
Joel is now speaking. The events of this chapter, and the whole book, may
be directed to Israel, but there are lots for New Testament Christians to learn from this book
as well. Many principles
directed towards the Jews in Joel’s account can easily be applied to
Christians and the church today.
One of the major themes
of the Old Testament as seen especially in the Law of Moses is to teach
our children the ways of God. Part
of this teaching is instructive. Other
parts are remembering what the Lord has done for us in the past.
The word "remember" is an important Old Testament word.
When there is no remembrance of the way God has helped us in the
past, there is no reason why our children will be faithful to God.
Passing one's faith from generation to the next seems a difficult
thing for us to do. Some
people believe it is a waist of time to speak of past events, whether in
history or in one's life.
I don't see it that way. They
are meant to be instructive and a means of encouragement. There appears to be 4 types of locust
that cause devastation in this chapter according to verse 4. They
are, the locust, the great locust, the young locust, and the other locusts
(NIV). It is said that there are more than 24,000 different types of
locust. The female doesn’t need a mail to produce children and they can
live up to 7 years. It has
also been discovered that if one hormone is changed in the locust, they
become extremely aggressive. Locust in the Bible, especially in
prophetic books, are commonly associated with demonic activity, thus
whether this attack was literal in Joel’s day or prophetic symbolism, it
is most likely that this attack is demonically motivated, which will
certainly be the case with many events in the last days of this age.
If you read Revelation 9
you will see another locust army and in that case it is clearly demonic,
with the devil himself as its leader.
The Revelation 9 attack appears to me to be modern warfare, not an
attack of insects known as locusts. We should also know that locust
attacks are common in the In verse 5 Joel tells the drunkards to
wake up to the fact that they have been invaded and their wine bottles
will soon be empty because the locusts have totally destroyed the grape
vines. To me this suggests a
culture that has lost its focus on the Lord.
They are totally caught up in their own affairs, whether it is
drinking, eating, or any other humanistic activity that captivated them.
The call to these people is to wake up, mourn over what has happened, and
come to their senses. I'm reminded that Jesus told us that
as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the end of this age.
People will marry, they'll work, they'll simply be caught up in
life without seeing the signs of the end of this age.
That sure is the situation today.
So many people are so busy with life that they do not see what is
happening around them. This
age will end, and it will be one big surprise for them.
Our western world today is caught up
with self preservation, hedonistic excesses, and more.
It is missing out on the real and important issues of life.
For this reason, our culture is missing out on the life God has for
it. In many respects the
western world church is following the ways of the world.
We're caught up in present things that have little relevance to
eternal issues.
Verse 5 also states that the wine
"has been snatched from the lips" of the drunkards.
The word "snatched" in my opinion hints of a sudden surprise.
Without any warning, the wine is suddenly ripped from the hands of
the drinker. If you conclude that there are many
things in society that make us drunk, such as materialism as I've stated,
all these things will be snatched from both our culture and Israel in the
last days. That which
intoxicates us will suddenly be taken from us, and if we are without
Jesus, we will feel very empty. More
than that, we will be devastated. No
wonder people will wail and mourn in the last days. We
should stress the point that these drunkards are Jews, the people of God.
They are not pagan Gentiles. They
are Jews who are intoxicated with their pagan surroundings.
So here is the question for our church today.
Is the church, or any part of the church, intoxicated by the world
around it? I think it is.
In verse 6 Joel might be giving us a
clue of what this locust invasion is all about. He
says that "a nation has invaded my land."
Remember, the word "my" refers to God, because Joel is
repeating the words that God gives him. The land that God gave to Some suggest, because of the word
"nation," that this verse does suggest that the invading locust
represents an attacking nation. Prophetically
speaking, I think that is exactly what is meant here, and, the attacking
will come at the end of this age as we will see. There
might have been prophetic fulfillment of an attacking nation in Old
Testament times, but, in the context of the Day of the Lord, which this
seems to be set in, as we will see, tells me that there is an end of age
attack on Israel referenced here. In verses 7 and 8 we see this nation,
or nation of locust, is powerful, like a lion.
It strips the fig tree of its bark and the vines of its grapes.
This invasion has totally desolated the agriculture of the The word "lion" might also be significant when it comes to the Empire of Babylon that sacked Jerusalem and the Jews in 586 BC. Babylon's symbol was the lion. Therefore, this locust attack, according to some, might hint at the Babylonian attack on Israel in 586 BC. If this is the case, and it might be, I strongly believe this prophecy has a double fulfillment, both in 586 BC and at the end of this age. The vine and the fig tree often have
symbolic significance in prophecy. Many
Bible scholars, especially Prophetic Futurists, believe that the vine represents
God says, "Mourn like a
virgin" in verse 8. Once
again He is speaking first to the elders, and then to Israel
as a whole. To me this is a
call for Israel
to repent. Obviously it is
individuals that repent, but I believe that the nation of Israel
as a whole has an obligation to repent. We see this in Daniel’s prayer
of intercession for his nation. There
needs to be mass repentance in Israel, and that is what the final 7 year tribulation period is all about.
If you read Zechariah 12 and 14 you will learn much about Israel
in these last 7 years. One
thing you will learn is that Israel
finally does repent. Their
repentance is seen in the weeping and mourning as if they have lost an
only child as stated by Zechariah.
In
the book of Revelation you will see 144,000 Jews from each tribe of Israel. It's my thinking that these Jewish prophets will preach from the
prophetic books of the Old Testament like Joel. They will call If you read the book of Hosea you will
note that God views Himself as Israel's husband, but Israel
has committed adulter In many parts of the church today
there needs to be a massive repentance as well. Certain
areas of the church need to mourn before the Lord and seek His face.
The church has lost much ground because of its worldliness.
Many parts of the Evangelical church don't even speak on repentance
any more let alone actually repenting, and we do have many things to
repent of.
Israel was to grieve "for the husband of her
youth" as stated in verse 8. I
believe this is a reference to their God who they have forsaken.
In the time of
If you read Malachi 2
you will note that Israeli men left the wives of their youth to marry
pagan women. God was very
upset over this. These
marriages and other alliances with pagans was seen by God as spiritual
adultery. In one sense of the
word God considered In verse 9 we see that the activities
of the temple, such as the offerings have been cut off. The
priest should mourn because of this. You
might wonder how this verse speaks prophetically to end time True New Testament worship with the
aid of the Holy Spirit has been lost as well in many parts of the church
today. This is an issue that
needs to be addressed in the modern church.
This is something we need to repent of. Verses 10 and 11 speak of total
agricultural devastation. This locust
invasion, no matter how you interpret it, totally destroys the land, the
land by the way, that God loves and will make sure Jews get in the end.
I have alluded to this
earlier, but when thinking of this devastation as an end time scenario, to
me, this looks very much like ruins from atomic warfare. In verse 11 Joel speaks of the Barley and wheat crop being destroyed. Barley and wheat were not harvested at the same time. Barley was harvested around the Feast of Passover, March to April, while the wheat was harvested around the Feast of Pentecost, about 50 days later. I say this to suggest that this infestation took place over a period of time. It was not a one time single event. It was continuous for a while. This section ends in verse 12 with
these words. "Surely the
joy of mankind (older versions of the NIV) has withered away." The
newer versions of the NIV do not use the word "mankind."
They use the word "peoples" instead.
This is due to the new emphasis to make the Bible genderless
wherever possible. The Hebrew
text translates the words "people's" or "mankind's"
from the Hebrew words "ben adam," which simply mean "sons
of man." I personally
would have not used the words "people's" or
"mankind's." I would
use the words "sons of men" because it is more accurate to the
original text. At this point we need to ask to whom
does the words "sons of men" or "people's" apply?
Do these words apply to Jews or to all mankind; to all sons of men?
First of all, the text is speaking about the Jews in their land.
The joyless people would have to be them, but, since this situation
will affect the whole world as we read in Revelation and elsewhere,
mankind in general throughout the world will be joyless.
The scenario we see here, although a regional event has major world
wide implications.
Many lives will lost during the Great
Tribulation that I believe this passage speaks of.
It will be in the midst of this devastation, a devastation that has
never been seen, that the remaining Jews who have survived the Great
Tribulation will fall on their knees in repentance before the Lord Jesus
Christ, their Messiah, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord through Paul
when he said "all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26).
I know the tragedy of this section applies to Israel, but it is also a clear picture of world events at the end of this age. In this section we've seen all sorts of disasters, from agricultural, to economic, to physical emotional stress, and just general chaos. This is a clear picture of the world at the end of this age. I would suggest that we all take heed to what is being said in the book of Joel. Something else to
think about as we end this section is that the devastation we see,
especially in the last couple of verses is material devastation.
It's agricultural and economic.
If affects the nation. It
is not spiritual because Israelis are already spiritually dead.
When we see the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy in the 7 year
tribulation, the Lord will have to destroy the nation of Previous Section - Introduction
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