I. The Foreshadow of Devastation (Joel 1:1-20)

I. The Foreshadow of Devastation (1:1-20)

1:1 Joel begins his prophecy by authenticating his prophetic office: The word of the Lord that came to Joel. The words that follow, then, have their source in God. Joel didn’t seek this message. He was called by God—not vice versa. The King came to a servant and commanded the servant to comply.

1:2-3 Joel calls on the elders and inhabitants of the land to listen: Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors? (1:2). Nothing arrests one’s attention quicker than an intriguing question, so Joel is drawing his audience in. By saying, Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation (1:3), Joel builds the tension further to make the reader ask, “Well, what is it?”

1:4-7 What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten (1:4). In other words, massive locust swarms had stripped the land bare. Their destruction of the crops had reached epic proportions; the pestilence was historic. Joel even compares the locusts to a nation that had invaded the land (1:6). Indeed, a foreign army couldn’t have left the country more devastated. The grapevine and the fig tree—two principle producers of food for the land—were left barren (1:7).

1:8-12 Joel tells the people to mourn in sackcloth (1:8). Internal grief was symbolized by wearing this rough, scratchy fabric. With the crops destroyed, grief comes upon priests and farmers alike (1:9-12). The former could receive no grain or drink offerings, which means there was no portion for them to eat (1:9). And the farming economy would be ruined without a harvest (1:11). For an agrarian culture like Joel’s, it’s not surprising that human joy . . . dried up at such a calamity (1:12).

1:13-14 Such a disastrous event calls for a sacred fast, a solemn assembly. In fact, Joel calls everyone to lament, gather at the house of the Lord, and cry out to him. The locust destruction was bad, but something worse was coming. Their work was only a prelude prefiguring something bigger.

1:15 Woe because of the day! For the day of the Lord is near and will come as devastation from the Almighty signals a significant theme in the book of Joel. The phrase “day of the Lord” also occurs in many other prophetic books of the Old Testament (see Isa 13:6, 9; Ezek 13:5; Amos 5:18, 20; Obad 15; Zeph 1:7, 14). It often refers to a time of God’s judgment in history on the sins of Israel or of other nations. It can also refer to the ultimate day of the Lord, when his judgment will be carried out on unbelievers at the end of time (see 1 Thess 5:1-5).

1:16-20 Joel declares that the judgment is coming upon Israel. The locust plague cut off their food, which cut off their joy and gladness (1:16). Storehouses and granaries were ruined, and animals groaned for lack of food (1:17-18). But this was only the beginning, foreshadowing what was to come.