This Is Not The Devil's Doing
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· 4 viewsGod sends Locusts to Israel to invade their land and cause draft to motivate them to repentance.
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This Is Not The Devil’s Doing
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
And rend your heart and not your garments.”
Now return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
The book of Joel is a single prophecy given by God to the prophet Joel.
The prophecy begins by describing an event so extreme and so
unique. It has never happened before and it will never occur again. At
its core, the book and prophecy of Joel is a warning to the people
about the dangers of turning from God.
Joel 1:4 describes an attack by the invading and swarming of locusts.
“What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.”
The text describes a coordinated attack of the “chewing locust, the
swarming locusts, the crawling locusts and the consuming locust.”
Joel goes on to describe the level of devastation that Israel
experiences by prophesying that nothing is left and nothing else will
grow.
Joel 1:9-10 teaches that there will be no new wine, no new figs, no new wheat, no new barley, no new pomegranates, no new dates, no new apples- there will not be anything left that can be used for to make an offering to God.
The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
From the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
The ministers of the Lord.
The field is ruined,
The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
The new wine dries up,
Fresh oil fails.
It is in verse 14 of Joel chapter 1 that we see the prophet urging the
people to sanctify themselves, to fast and gather together to ask God
for his mercy. In Joel 1:16-20 Joel describes the devastation and the
urgency of the moment that they need God to intervene.
Joe 1:16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
Joe 1:17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid
desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
Joe 1:18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate.
Joe 1:19 O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the
pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of
the field.
Joe 1:20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of
waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the
wilderness.
The Lord uses this level of dearth, drought, destruction, devastation
and even death to usher the people into realizing the urgency of the
moment that was brought on by their departure from the Lord. It was
The Lord that allowed this to occur in their life because they departed
from The Lord and if the devastation of their situation would be fixed,
it would have to be The Lord that would fix it.
Joel is describing a drought. Droughts are impossible agricultural
situations. Droughts don’t come quickly and they don’t leave quickly.
It takes time to dry up rivers and streams. The drought that Israel
had experienced is evidence that God had been patient with Israel,
giving them a chance to repent and they did not. This was apart of
God’s punishment on an apostatizing people and God was finally tired
of it.
To make the drought worse, God sends the locusts. Joel describes the
locust in 1:6 as “a nation.” Joel uses metaphorical language intended
to humanizes the insects in 2:4 when he says “they have the
appearance of horseman”. Joel is describing how God has weaponized
the locusts to enact revenge on the Israelites who turned against him.
Verse 5 of chapter 2 describes the assault of the locusts. Their assault
was so massive that Joel says that the beating of their wings sounds
like chariots on the move. There were so many locusts descending on
Israel that the text says that they run “like mighty men... everyone
marches in formation.”
As a matter of fact, verse 8 of chapter 2 suggests that there were so
many locusts that they could not be killed, or destroyed. Verse 9 of
chapter 2 shows that they are in firm control of every part of the city.
They are climbing into houses and windows, covering the walls and
the roofs. They are literally everywhere.
God does not send a human army, subject to the defenses of the army
of Israel. He does not send men who can be killed by swords and
warriors. God does send armies who sometimes have trouble listening
to orders and fighting battles. God does not send men who can’t
occupy every corner of the city. God sends the Locusts.
Sometimes your battle is not with the flesh. Sometimes your battle is
with what you can’t kill. And God will let you battle with what you can’t kill. As a matter of fact, God will send to you what you cannot
kill. Every trouble is not the result of the devil. Some trouble is
because God sent it to you to get your attention.
God sends locusts because it was too many to defeat. God sends
locusts because they couldn’t run from them. They couldn’t avoid the
locusts. The couldn’t go in the house and shut the door. They couldn’t
find a quiet spot on the pasture away from the chaos. They couldn’t go
to work or take a nice horseback ride out of the city. God fixed it so
that the locust was with them every day and every night. The locusts
occupied every space in their lives.
Have you ever had a moment in your life when God sent your
affliction to you and you could do nothing to escape the nagging sound
and the destruction of your enemy? This kind of preaching isn’t about
people enemies. This kind of preaching is about God sending enemies
that you cannot kill.
This kind of enemy will kill everything around you, but not you. This
kind of enemy kills your crops and your animals. This kind of enemy
dries up your drinking water. This kind of enemy blocks your path
from escape. This kind of enemy forces you to deal with your reality.
I know it’s good preaching to talk about people stabbing you in the
back and scandalizing your name, but sometimes God will send an
enemy or multiple enemies that you can’t kill.
Locusts are insects that devour. They take over. They swarm in
solidarity. They bite, devour and consume. They change colors to
blend in. They have the ability to repopulate quickly to cover large
areas, sometimes consisting of billions in a swarm.
The problem with locusts in that an individual locust doesn’t seem to
be much of a problem, but when there is one locust there are other
locusts. And is there anybody in here that seems to have a problem
with the locusts in your life? Is there anybody in here that seems to
have a problem with getting ahead? The minute you plant one seed
and see some harvest, the locust show up. The minute you get a
couple of dollars in the bank, the car breaks down. The minute you get
peace in your marriage, the side chick shows up. The minute you get a
promotion on your job, the hating co-worker shows up. Locusts!
God seems to be notorious for using locusts. In Malachi 3, the people
of Israel are being rebuked for not giving their tithes. In verse 9, he
says “you are under a curse because you are robbing me.” He says
“Bring the whole tithe in the storehouse that there may be food in my
house. Test me in this, says the Lord almighty, and see if I will not
throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing
that there will not be room enough to store it.”
As a promise to the faithful tither, he says in verse 11: “I will prevent
the pests (or locusts) from devouring your crops, and the vines in
your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe.”
God has always used locusts as a response to your disobedience. And
if the locusts is devouring your effort and your harvest, you may need
to check your relationship with the Lord.
Page 6 of 8 When God Sends Your
Enemies
Here we have in Joel 2:11 God taking responsibility for the “nation” of
insect soldiers: “The Lord gives voice before His army, for his camp is
very great; for strong is the One who executes is word. For the day of
the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?”
Again, he takes responsibility for the locusts in verse 25 calling it
once again “My great army which I sent among you.” God literally
sends the locust as punishment for sin and breaking the covenant,
and the locusts did their job.
Although Joel does not record how many people died in Gods
reckoning, he does give the path forward. He says in verse 12: “turn
to me with all your heart..” The path forward was also the path
backwards. If they wanted to escape the enemy God had sent, they
needed to turn to God, whom they had left. Just like he had given the
locusts orders against them, he would give them orders to depart
from them. But they had to turn to the Lord with true repentance, not
hypocritically, but sincerely with their whole hearts and God would
receive and forgive them.
God describes what turning to him looks like: “and with fasting, and
with weeping, and with mourning”. The Lord needed to see
external signs of an internal repentance. He needed to see that there
was some grief, sorrow and heavy hearts about their departure from
the Lord.
This is why he says in verse 13: “rend your hearts, and not your
garments.” Whenever someone would tear their garments, this was
done to indicates times of distress, grief and sorrow. It was often done
publicly and privately. The problem with tearing your garments was
that there was no requirement for repentance. It was an outward sign
that you felt bad about your condition. But here God says that I’m not
just looking for you to show that you feel bad, I need you to show
contrition of heart and brokenness of spirit over the sin that you have
committed. Your heart has to reflect godly sorrow and the desire to
repent of your mess. Your heart has to be broken over what you have
done, forcing you to “turn to the Lord your God”.
And is there anybody in this place that has ever had the Locust to
show up and devour your life and it drove you consider that God sent
them to drive you to repentance. Have you ever had a broken heart of
the sin and the mess that you’ve committed. Sometimes God has to
break your heart to save your life.
I’m about to close, but the text says “turn to the Lord your God, for
he is gracious and merciful and slow to anger, and of great
kindness.” This suggests that God is not hasty to stir up anger. He is
rich and plenteous in mercy and he is ready to forgive. He is long
suffering and he provides in a providential way. If the truth were to
be told, it took a long time before his anger was stirred up. And even
after he got angry, he is so gracious and merciful that he awaits for
your return to him.
I hear Paul saying in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own
love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
I hear Paul saying again in Romans 8:1”Therefore, there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...”
I hear Psalm 103 saying “he does not treat us as our sins deserve or
repay us according to our iniquities...”
Table 2: The Reversal of the Locust Plague
1:2–20
2:21–27
Elders are to remember, mourn, and tell the story for generations to come (vv.1: 2–3)
People will have plenty and will praise and never again be shamed (vv. 2: 26–27)
The four locust swarms eat everything (v.1: 4)
People are repaid for the damage of the four locust swarms (v. 2: 25)
Wine is gone and oil fails (vv.1: 5, 10)
Wine and oil restored (v.2: 24b)
Grain depleted and granaries ruined (vv. 1:10–11, 17)
Grain restored and threshing floors full (v.2: 24a)
Land is parched (vv. 1:12, 17)
Rains come (v. 2:23)
Trees are stripped bare (vv. 1:12, 19b)
Trees bear fruit (v.2:22b)
Animals dying (vv. 1:18, 20)
Animals have pasture (v. 2:22a)
Land “burned up” (vv. 1:19–20)
Land “not afraid” (v. 2:21)
But the covenant also implies both the compassion of God and the ultimate vindication of Israel (Deut 32:36). God is merciful, and when his people call on him, he quickly desists from punishing and heals those whom he has wounded. The Mosaic proclamation that the Lord is “compassionate and gracious” and “slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Exod 34:6) has become the basis for Joel’s hope that repentance will result in deliverance (Joel 2:13).
In addition, Israel as the chosen people is the “apple of the eye” of God (Deut 32:10). Gentiles who mock, attack, or despoil Israel will experience the same and worse; God will heap their atrocities back upon their own heads (Joel 3:4–8; cf. Obad 10–16; Nah 1:15). In the end God will show that he is Israel’s God by bringing the whole world into judgment and allowing for no place of safety except Zion (Joel 3:19–21).