Minor Prophets Major Lessons – Joel

From Joel to Us: What If You Lost Everything?

Minor prophets can sound like a buzzkill, but the difference between a major and a minor prophet is simply the length of the book. Minor prophets are just as much God’s word. We know little about Joel beyond his name, that he was a prophet, and his father’s name. But I think if Joel were here, he would ask us one question: what if you lost everything that makes your life comfortable and enjoyable? We went through all three chapters in one morning, in four scenes: locusts, an enemy from the north, a call to repentance, and restoration.

Why did God send the locusts? The people of Israel had become numb to their relationship with him, calloused by the comfort they had. How God worked with them is how he works with us.

God Warns His People

God warns in stages, first with his word, and then with a locust plague. Warnings cut through the numbing effect of comfortable lives. In 1:4, three waves of locusts left nothing. This was an agricultural society, so the business was gone, too. Then Joel names three kinds of people. The drunkards represent taking the blessings of God, overindulging, and forgetting the one who blessed you. Ephesians 5 says don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. We can be numbed by our jobs, income, retirement, or even families, like the young bride in verse 8 who loses her bridegroom right before the wedding. And we can be numbed in religious practice: verse 9 says the grain and drink offering were cut off. They were likely still doing the practices, but their hearts were not in them.

Hebrews 4:12 says the word of God is living and active. God still warns us through his word. If your Bible reading has become duty with no passion, you can come back and restore that fellowship. Joel 1:15 says the day of the Lord is near. That phrase is used for the end times, when God brings justice and makes everything right, and for events in history.

God Disciplines His People

If we don’t heed the warning, he disciplines. In chapter 2 an army comes from the north, probably a foreign nation God empowers to take over the nation. Hebrews 12:6 says the Lord disciplines the one he loves. Have you seen a child with no discipline? We say my parents would kill me, not because they were terrible but because they loved us. “Who can endure it?” In verse 11, there is only one answer: nobody. A God of justice cannot look at sin and look away. Israel had no hope in itself, and neither do we apart from Jesus, who paid for our sin on the cross.

Repent with a Torn Heart

Then comes the turn. “Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” And then, “rend your hearts and not your garments.” Tearing garments was a sign of penitence, but God wanted their hearts changed. The heart in the Bible is the core that motivates everything we do. We can come to church every week and never miss, and our hearts can be far from God. We might be thinking about our next business deal. Comforts are not sinful in themselves, but they easily become idols. How can we return to a God who warned us and threatened judgment? Because he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. His love keeps reproducing. “Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind.”

God Restores

Verse 18 says the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity. He promises grain, wine, and oil, the very things the locusts took. Those were never the problem. Their hearts were. After his fall with Bathsheba, David prayed, restore to me the joy of my salvation. People will see when God is working in your life. They see someone who is joyful even when the doctor gives bad news. When we look to our health, wealth, and relationships for joy, we reproach God, because we look like everyone else. God is not asking us to sell our houses and cars. He wants us to give him credit and use what he has given us for him.

He restores the spiritual. Chapter 2:28 says I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, sons, daughters, old, young, and servants. In the Old Testament few had the Spirit, and only for a special purpose. At Pentecost in Acts 2 it was fulfilled. The author of the book we are trying to understand lives in us and teaches us. And in chapter 3, he restores justice. Foreign nations had sold boys and girls to do what they wanted, and God says he will judge them. When we see injustice, he says, don’t worry; I have a plan.

Why does he do all this? Verse 17: “so you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” He wants it to be personal.