God’s Mechanic: JOEL

Historical Context/Audience

     We know little of the prophet Joel beyond the few personal notes in the book itself. He preached to Judah, had a great deal of interest in Jerusalem, and seems very familiar with the priests and the temple, and thus Judah’s worship life. Dating the book remains a difficult task for scholars and opinions vary widely. Unlike other prophets, Joel does not indicate any time period and does not mention current kings. The existence of the temple is taken for granted, so he might have come long before the exile or long enough after for the temple to be rebuilt. The lack of a historical context for the book does not hinder interpretation very much.

     Evidently Judah had experienced a devastating locust plague which stripped the land bare of every shred of vegetation (Joel 1:4-10). Just as they began to recover, a drought withered the new growth (Joel 1:11-12, 16-20). This is when Joel prophecies. Joel’s vision of the locust plagues is perhaps among the most familiar prophetic images of impending invasion and devastation.

Message/Theme

     Two theological emphases dominate the book of Joel – the Day of the Lord and repentance. Though the prophecies begin with an account of the locust plague and a drought, those devastations are but harbingers of a greater catastrophe yet to come that will involve not only Judah but the cosmos as a whole. "Alas for that day! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty." (1:15).

     Judah stands in mortal danger of God’s judgment day because of her sin against the Lord. The sign of her separation from God is the fact that she has no more grain, wine, and oil with which to carry out the daily sacrifices in the temple (1:9-10; cf. 2:14, 19, 24). Her communion with her Lord is no more.

     Joel does not identify Judah’s sin. But Joel’s name means “Ja (a shortened form of Jahweh, Lord) is God,” and at two crucial points in the book, it is asserted that God’s actions will cause Judah to know that the Lord (Jahweh) is God (2:27; 3:17). Judah’s sin is therefore apparently that of apostasy, of devotion to other gods and goddesses.

     The Day of the Lord comes, with its thick darkness, clouds and gloom, its devouring fire, and its mysterious destroying force from the north(apparently the armies of God.) (2:1-11; cf. 2:20). Israel had earlier thought that the Day of the Lord would be the time when God would defeat all her enemies and exalt her among the nations in his kingdom. Amos and the prophets who succeeded him corrected Israel of such happy thoughts. Because of her sin, Israel would be subjected to the burning fire of God’s judgment along with all the nations. Chapter 3 of Joel vividly pictures that judgment on all nations. 

     Against the background of the prophecy of the coming of the day of final judgement, the second great theme in Joel’s prophecies sounds the call to repentance (2:12-17). Even in the face of Judah’s unfaithfulness, God through his prophet utters a “Yet – even now” (2:12). There is still room for repentance and return, if it is sincere repentance from the heart! Therefore the prophet bids the priests to lead the people in that communal fast of penitence (2:15-17).

     The promises of salvation that follow in 2:18-27 are not God’s automatic reaction to Judah’s repentance, however. They issue out of the character of God (cf. 2:13), who in his compassion for his people is determined to fulfill his world-wide purposes through them (2:18).