Joel
Minor Prophets · Old Testament · Book 29 of 66- Author
- Joel son of Pethuel
- Written
- Date debated — suggestions run from the ninth century to after the exile
- Time covered
- A locust plague and its aftermath
- Where
- Judah, and Jerusalem in particular
- Written to
- A farming people whose year had just been eaten
- Genre
- Prophecy
- Chapters
- 3
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:”Joel 2:28 KJV
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Overview
A plague of locusts has stripped the land bare — four waves of them, field, vine and tree. Joel takes the disaster and holds it up as a small picture of something larger: the day of the LORD, near and terrible.
His call is to repent now, and to mean it: rend your heart and not your garments. And beyond the judgment he sees restoration, and the Spirit of God poured out on all flesh — the passage Peter stood up and quoted at Pentecost.
Background
The book gives no king, no foreign empire and no dated event, which is why its date is argued over. What it does give is a people whose harvest, offerings and livelihood have all failed at once.
Locust swarms were a known catastrophe in the ancient Near East, capable of consuming a region’s crops in hours. Joel describes them as an invading army, and then describes an invading army in the same terms.
Key themes
- The day of the LORD — near, great and terrible.
- Disaster is a summons to repentance, not merely bad luck.
- Repentance is inward before it is public.
- God restores the years the locust has eaten.
- The Spirit poured out on sons and daughters, servants and handmaids alike.
Outline
- The locustsChapter 1
A devastation without precedent, and a call to the priests to gather and cry out.
- The day of the LORD, and a call to returnChapter 2
An army like locusts, then rend your heart — and the promise of the Spirit.
- Judgment on the nationsChapter 3
The valley of decision, and the LORD dwelling in Zion.
Key passages
- Joel 1:4 What the palmerworm left, the locust has eaten.
- Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion: the day of the LORD cometh.
- Joel 2:12-13 Turn ye even to me with all your heart — rend your heart, and not your garments.
- Joel 2:25 I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.
- Joel 2:28-29 I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
- Joel 2:32 Whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered.
- Joel 3:14 Multitudes in the valley of decision.
Christ in Joel
Peter’s sermon at Pentecost begins: this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. The outpouring Joel saw from a distance came on the church, and Paul quotes 2:32 to say that whoever calls on the name of the Lord — Jew or Greek — will be saved.
Reading it
- Read Acts 2:14-21 alongside chapter 2; Peter treats this book as the explanation of the day.
- Note how the locusts and the army blur into each other on purpose.
- Three short chapters — read it in one go.