Project 119: Joel 1:1-12
| Project 119 | Dr. Kely Hatley
“Locust Plague or Sin Plague? There Are Many Similarities!”
We begin this week’s devotionals by delving into the book of Joel. Not much is known about Joel, the author. Verse 1 of the first chapter tells us that he is the son of Pethuel, but nothing is known about his father either. We may draw conclusions from his writings that he was mostly likely from Judah and did his prophesying in the city of Jerusalem. It is believed that Joel was one of the earliest of the minor prophets for some of the prophecies of both Amos and Isaiah echo themes or verses from the book of Joel.
In today’s reading, verses 1-12 deal with the invasion of the army of locusts which plague Judah in swarms. Great destruction is described in these twelve verses. It describes the power of the locusts in verses 6 and 7 saying, “…it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white” (Joel 1:6-7, NIV).
Today it is hard to grasp the great devastation of a locust outbreak. The last great outbreak of locusts in the U.S. was during 1875. The Rocky Mountain Locust formed a swarm that was 1,800 miles long and 110 miles wide—the largest recorded swarm in the history of the world. Such a mass of insects is almost inconceivable to me, yet we know it happened. The devastation that ensued caused many farmers to give up and move elsewhere.
How may we apply this locust plague story to our lives today? Think of your life as the ground, the crops, and the vegetation. Then see the locusts as sin in our lives. Sometimes sin swarms over us and when it does, it consumes. What is left is desolation and destruction. Verse 12 ends with the sentence, “Surely the joy of mankind is withered away” (Joel 1:12, NIV). That’s the result of sin in our life…a withered joy in our spiritual lives. If you are in the midst of this kind of “sin plague” in your life today, then join in prayer to God with the psalmist who prayed, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12, NIV). The Lord is with you…the Lord hears, as we are reminded later in the same Psalm “a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:17, NIV).
Joel 1:1-12 (ESV):
1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
An Invasion of Locusts
2 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?
3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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.
8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the LORD.
The priests mourn,
the ministers of the LORD.
10 The fields are destroyed,
the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed,
the wine dries up,
the oil languishes.
11 Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 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.