Joel means “Yahweh is Lord.” That is a pretty good way to start a book.
The book of Joel is placed in the Old Testament canon between Hosea and Amos. The reason for that placement is lost in tradition because the date of its writing is uncertain. Even though we cannot really ascertain when it was written, it is not all that difficult to figure out why it was written.
Joel was written to emphasize God’s sovereignty over all nations; to describe the consequences of breaching God’s covenant; and, to call the people to renewed faithfulness.
There are four basic sections within this short book. The first (1:2-20) describes a massive, cataclysmic event in three parts that befalls Jerusalem and Judah. Locusts devastate the land, followed by a drought, followed further by desolation of war. Joel issues a call to lament, to witness the destruction wrought. He does not make specific indictments of the failure to abide by the covenant; that the people have been unfaithful is easy to infer based upon the events that are taking place. Beginning in 1:13, the people are called to repentance: “Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.” (1:13-15)
The second section (2:1-17) describes the onslaught of an army with unprecedented destructive power; followed by a call to return to God. Joel’s language here is bone-quaking: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand— a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste— nothing escapes them.”
(2:1-3) This description ends with, “The day of the LORD is great, it is dreadful, Who can endure it?” (2:11).
Yet this word of doom is not the final word. Immediately after the rhetorical question, “Who can endure?”, God speaks tenderly through the prophet. “’Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting 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, and he relents from sending calamity.” (2:12-13).
The book takes a turn when it goes into the third section (2:18-3:5). Here, the situation improves as the foe is removed and God restores their supply of food and wine. Then comes the part of Joel most familiar: the Day of the Lord prophecy that Peter quotes at Pentecost. “‘And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”(2:28-32)
The final section (3:6-21) declares God’s sovereignty and victory over all opposition. He will eventually effect military defeat and divine judgment for the nations. Then, prosperity and peace will be the order of the day under God’s provision.
What should we understand from Joel?
It is worth repeating that “Joel” means “Yahweh is Lord.” That concept frames the entire scope and movement of the book. Joel’s initial call to the people – to bear witness to the consequences of breaking the covenant – shows that God is sovereign. The end of things as they now exist is the precipitating event for Joel’s prophecy. Note that the end of things involves both judgment and grace. The first two sections of the book are absolutely bleak with the manifestation of God’s judgment. The last two sections are much more hopeful and, ultimately, triumphant as God gracefully brings his people to a place of restored relationship with himself and all the benefits that follow.
God’s judgment leads people from sin to God. Joel writes of the prayer of the people, ““Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’‘” (2:17) The people have come back and sought to live in the presence of God. “Then the LORD will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people.” (2:18). God’s judgment draws people to himself.
Likewise, Peter’s application of this prophecy on Pentecost Sunday reveals how God’s judgment will draw people to himself. Pentecost is the celebration of the church’s birthday: when the Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire and the miracles and wonders of God were proclaimed in every tongue. The mystery of the cross is that Christ endured the judgment of God – as completely and fully as described in the language of Joel – and rose again. In victory, Jesus calls all nations to himself.
Let that be our prayer: May we repent of the ways we have strayed from God, thank God because Jesus has taken the judgment for our sins on himself, and rejoice that we are invited to join him in the kingdom he is establishing in eternity.
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