What the locusts meant to Joel

The prophet Joel spoke gloom and doom like most Biblical prophets.

But the difference is this: the gloom Joel lived through was not brought about by the moral sins of people. The problem was a natural disaster:

Locusts had invaded the land and wiped everything out: the grapevines and figs were ruined; all the grain was gone; the fields were ruined; the wheat and barley destroyed; there was no food in the cupboards; and all the barns were empty.

What a bleak time!

What is striking about Joel's approach is that a natural disaster -- in other words, a bleak event that cannot be attributed to any person's moral failings -- was nevertheless used by Joel as a reason to call for moral repentance:

"Turn to me now while there is still time; give me your hearts; come with fasting, weeping, and mourning ... rend your hearts not your clothes ..."

Like Joel's day, we live in a fallen nature in which many undesirable things happen that are not specifically due to any one person's moral failures. Hurricanes come; earthquakes come; old age comes; Alzheimer's comes; death comes.

Winter is coming to where I live: what the cold leaves, the snow takes away; what the snow leaves the ice will take away ... It is a bleak time, a time of "seasonal affective disorder."

But Joel would see this bleak time as a time to re-examine hearts. And he then says that with repentance will come blessing:

"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten ... you will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you..."

Logos2Go

Joel 1.4 What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten...

Joel 2.12-13 Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with faasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love ...

Joel 2.25-26 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten -- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm -- my greate army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you ...