Year 9, Day 213: Joel 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

We journey with the prophet Joel for a few days.  There is a good amount of debate about when Joel lived.  Most people think he lived somewhere between the Assyrian threat and the Babylonian exile.  A few date this book as late as only a hundred or so years from the coming of Jesus.  It’s a large time gap, and its not an easy job to date the book.

What this means is that this book is likely a literal book, not an analogy to the Assyrians or the Babylonians.  This is preferred, since when in question the easiest interpretation is the literal one.  Therefore, Joel is likely writing about a time among the Hebrew people that a plague of locusts just came through the land and ate what crops were there.  The locusts coincide with a time of drought, which had already dried up the fields and streams.

There are greater consequences to this.  It isn’t just human beings that are suffering.  The cattle in the field are unable to find pastures to use as feed or streams to find water.  The grapevines are drying up.  The fruit trees are withering.  Everything is being attacked because of the drought.

Joel calls the people to lament and repent.  He begs them to remember the Lord.  He begs the priest to have a solemn assembly.  He begs the elders to come together and cry to the Lord.

This chapter is such an incredible chapter to read after ending of Hosea.  We know that Hosea had much warning within.  Remember how Hosea said that the priests neglected to be a true role model.  Remember how Hosea end chapter 13 with the pronouncement that the people forgot their God.  Joel has learned.  He knows that we must call people to remember.  Joel calls people into relationship. 

Joel knows that righteousness is so much more than obedience.  People can obey without buying in emotionally and spiritually.  Joel knows that righteousness is about relationship with God.  When our relationship is right, obedience will follow.

That’s a profound learning that comes from pairing Hosea with Joel.  So often people boil Christianity down to doing the right thing.  People make Christianity about strict obedience.  Christianity is about relationship with God.  When we are truly in relationship, the rest of the Christianity – obedience, faithfulness, kindness, generosity, etc –takes care of itself.

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