Joel 2:23-32
A locust plague, more devastating than any in memory, scoured and scarred Judah like a vast invading army. Fields, pastures, orchards, and vineyards were stripped and dying. Where was God?
“Exactly,” Joel seems to say. “Put on sackcloth, you 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” (1:13-14).
The present calamity was a picture of their spiritual reality. God longs to bring spiritual life to barren lives. Lavish lives overflowing with divine love. “I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (2:28): high and low, male and female, young and old. Terrifying wonders will be seen. In that day “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved” (2:32).
Author: Duane Brush