Joel
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Overview and Context
Overview and Context
The time of Joel is unknown, like many of the books in this series. There are not enough indicators to tell us when his ministry took place, though we can roughly place it between 9th and 6th Centuries BC. Something else similar between Joel and many of the other books in our Series is the beginning verse. Joel 1:1
The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
We saw that same formula to let you know what you’re about to read in Hosea but it also occurs in Micah, Zechariah, and Zephaniah’s first verse.
The book of Joel gets broken into different outlines depending on how you’re tackling the book. The really detailed outlines have 7-8 major sections and the simplistic have two. My plan is to break Joel into four sections. The Hebrew chapter renderings break Joel into four chapters and I kind of like how those are split.
Our first section will be all of Chapter 1
I. Judgment and lamentation now should be recognized by all people (Joel 1:2-20)
II. Judgment and repentance coming (Joel 2:1-27)
III. Pouring out of the spirit (Joel 2:28-32)
IV. Judgment of all Nations (Joel 3)
We’ll see how well I can stick to my own outline, and it’s possible we’ll have to break up some of the bigger outline points into their corresponding smaller ones. We’ll finish Joel on Feb. 1st at the earliest.
Kicking it off we’ll start in Verse two.
Hear this, you elders;
give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
Now, we’re starting with something that was in the immediate past. The original audience here would know already what he’s referring to. We can figure it out from the following verses. There was a plague of Locusts that destroyed the land. This was a different kind of destruction though. Locust swarms are fairly common and people tend to recover quickly. The fact that Joel’s asking has this ever happened or even to your fathers tells us this is a very different and far more severe problem than what normally occurs. In a place where locusts were somewhat common they actually had many different names that were specific for the type of locust. We can see them in verse 4.
What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten.
Here there are four distinct types of locust, and through the whole Old Testament nine types of locusts are listed. I think the highest count archeologists/anthropologists… or maybe it’s the philologists have is in the Arkadian language where there are 14 known words for types of locust. It’s like the old tale of the Eskimo having 50 words for snow. It’s not actually true that they have 50 but they do have many words that describe snow in different ways. Fine snow, fresh snow, snow on ground, soft deep snow, etc. It’s the same for these people and Locusts. The point that gets driven home in verse four is that many types of locust have come and they’ve utterly destroyed the crops. The cutting locust left a little over we might make it through, then the swarming locusts came and nearly took it all, but yet there was hope a little may still be salvaged, then the hopping locust came in and ate it all away, but there was still a morsel left by which we might be saved, then the destroying locust ate it all up. There is a driving continuing push to make it clear that you cannot escape God’s Judgment.
Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation has come up against my land,
powerful and beyond number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.
This is a literal wake up call so to say. I don’t think the intention is to talk only to the few drunkards of the nation, or to call the whole nation drunkards. I think it’s an impression we’re left with that prosperity has been relied upon and the people have become self indulgent and self gratifying. Most people during harvest that didn’t drink much normally would probably have some sweet wine, and possible too much, during this time. Now they won’t even have that option because there isn’t a harvest, which means there are no grapes to make the sweet wine with. Sweet wines of antiquity are generally young wines. Not the kind you age and keep for years and years.
This locust invasion was a reality but it’s already being compared to a nation coming in. The descriptions of lions aren’t meant to be descriptive in a visual sense but metaphorical. We call the lions the king of the jungle for a reason. They are a powerful and to be feared predator. They destroy the vineyard which is where that pruning or judgement from God occurs many times in the Bible.
e.g. Matt 21:33-46 ““Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never …”
Likewise the fig tree is used in that metaphorical sense elsewhere in the Bible like
Luke 13:6-9 “And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ””
The bark being stripped down to the white of the tree meat is not something it’s coming back from… you aren’t getting fruit off that next year.
We’ve talked to the leadership of the Elders, we’ve talked to the self indulgent of the people the drunkards and now there is not a group listed. It’s just a general statement to everyone else that’s not addressed so far.
Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
the ministers of the Lord.
The fields are destroyed,
the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed,
the wine dries up,
the oil languishes.
The metaphor here is that of a young woman, her bride price has been paid and she is betrothed but her husband dies before they consummate the marriage. Lament, like you were part of that tragedy - because you are - The offerings for the house of the Lord are cut off, lament like a priest who has nothing to offer - because you are - The fields are destroyed, the grain, wine, and oil are destroyed, lament like you were the ground who’s only purpose is to grow those things - because you are- At this point everyone, and everything should be in mourning. We continue on in the next verses by elaborating even more.
Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.
The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.
All purpose and gladness have ceased.
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
Now you should respond! The religious leaders need to bring the people together and cry out to God.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
The seed shrivels under the clods;
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because the grain has dried up.
How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer.
To you, O Lord, I call.
For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
Even the beasts of the field pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.
Now we finally get to this apocalyptic theme that will be present for our entire Joel study. The Day of the Lord, is spoken of as future tense here. We’ve already figured out that the locusts have come and gone and that’s the past. That was a type of ‘The Day of the Lord’ and it was used to call the people back to God. Here we’re speaking of one yet future and we’ll continue to speak of the future in the next chapter. Whereas the judgment of the past is already completed the one of the future has yet to happen. They can pray for mercy in their current aftermath of the immediate judgment but could still change for the judgment coming.
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