ARM Prison Outreach International
JOEL: "Jerusalem Overrun and Eaten by Locusts"
JOEL: "Jerusalem Overrun and Eaten by Locusts"
OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
Time: Approximately the last half of the 9th century BC, or about 850 to 810 BC
Recipients: The Southern Kingdom - usually called "Judah"
Theme: As locusts devastated the land, so God’s judgment will devastate Judah.
Form: An analogy between the locust catastrophe and coming judgment
Key Words: "the day of the LORD" is used six times 1:15 (2); 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14
"Judah" is used 6 times; "Jerusalem" 6 times; "locust" 3 times KJV -- 10 in NASB
Chap. One:
Locust infestation has destroyed all crops and vegetation (1:4-7). A great famine followed (1:9-12).
Chap. Two:
Warning is sounded-- judgment and destruction is coming (2:1-2). True repentance is needed. (2:12-14) An important assembly (2:15-18). A day of restoration (2:25-31).
Chap. Three:
The "good news" continues (3:1-7). Plows into swords; pruning hooks into spears (3:10). Zion, Jerusalem the point from which the Lord roars (3:16-18)
Joel 1:1-12
1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel,
the son of Pethuel.
2 Hear this, O elders, and listen, all inhabitants
of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your fathers'
days?
3 Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and
their sons the next generation.
4 What the gnawing locust has left, the
swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping
locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust
has eaten.
5 Awake, drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine
drinkers, On account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your
mouth.
6 For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number;
its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a
lioness.
7 It has made my vine a waste, and my fig tree splinters. It
has stripped them bare and cast them away; their branches have become
white.
8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the bridegroom of
her youth.
9 The grain offering and the libation are cut off from the
house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD.
10 The
field is ruined, the land mourns, for the grain is ruined, the new wine dries
up, fresh oil fails.
11 Be ashamed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, for
the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field is
destroyed.
12 The vine dries up, and the fig tree fails; the
pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, all the trees.
(NAS)
1. God never promised that our walk with Him would be free of adversity.
Job 14:1-2
1 Man that is born of a woman is of few
days, and full of trouble.
2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut
down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. (KJV)
John 16:32-33
32 "Behold, an hour is coming, and has
already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me
alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
33 "These
things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you
have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (NAS)
2 Tim 3:11-12
11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came
unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out
of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (KJV)
Job, Jesus, and Paul all knew this fact: Life always brings good AND bad!
A man met a little fellow on the road carrying a basket of blackberries, and said to him, "Sammy, where did you get such nice berries?" "Over there, sir, in the briers!" "Won't your mother be glad to see you come home with a basket of such nice, ripe fruit?" "Yes sir," said Sammy, "she always seems glad when I hold up the berries, and I don't tell her anything about the briers in my feet." The man rode on. Sammy's remark had given him a lesson, and he resolved that henceforth he would try and hold up the berries and say nothing about the briers.
An American physician stated that he had known a hundred or more instances, in his practice, of people who, in prospect of death, had been hopefully converted, but had afterwards recovered. Of all these he only knew of three who devoted themselves to the service of Christ when they got well. An English doctor once told that he had known three hundred sick people profess repentance and faith when they thought they were dying, but who afterwards recovered. Only ten of these gave evidence of reality by a change of life.
Thomas Andrew Dorsey was a black jazz musician from Atlanta. In the twenties he gained a certain amount of notoriety as the composer of jazz tunes with suggestive lyrics, but he gave all that up in 1926 to concentrate exclusively on spiritual music. "Peace in the Valley" is one of his best known songs, but there is a story behind his most famous song that deserves to be told.
In 1932 the times were hard for Dorsey. Just trying to survive the depression years as a working musician meant tough sledding. On top of that, his music was not accepted by many people. Some said it was much too worldly--the devil's music, they called it. Many years later Dorsey could laugh about it. He said, "I got kicked out of some of the best churches in the land." But the real kick in the teeth came one night in St. Louis when he received a telegram informing him that his pregnant wife had died suddenly.
Dorsey was so filled with grief that his faith was shaken to the roots, but instead of wallowing in self-pity, he turned to the discipline he knew best--music. In the midst of agony he wrote the following lyrics:
If you live long enough, you will experience heartache, disappointment, and sheer helplessness. The Lord is our most precious resource in those hours of trauma. "The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble." (Ps. 9:9) Tom Dorsey understood that. His song was originally written as a way of coping with his personal pain; but even today it continues to bless thousands of others when they pass through times of hardship.