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In the NIV, this passage is title “an army of locusts.”
The first 11 verses give us the reasons that Joel is telling the people that God’s judgment is coming and why it is coming.
Judah was still indifferent to their sin, even after the first plague of locusts.
They hadn’t heeded the Joel’s warning to repent.
In verse one, we see this call to blow the trumpet and sound the alarm.
The trumpet was a warning that something was about to happen, that danger is imminent.
The people would have likely realized something terrible was approaching and would heed the call to prepare.
Joel is warning them that if things don’t change, the Lord’s judgment will soon be at hand.
We often think about the Day of the lord or the Lord’s Judgement is both present and future.
Matthew 24:21 gives us a bit of insight into the future aspect of the Day of the Lord:
Jumping back to Joel, in verses 2-9 we find a description of the next plague that was going to come upon the people.
I want us to picture this.
Keep in mind, we see a description of absolute devastation in chapter 1 that had been unprecedented.
However, starting in verse 2, we see the description of something that would be much worse!
Imagine locusts so thick that they would block out the sun!
This got me curious, so I went out and researched a bit about locusts.
Let me share with you what I found from National Geographic:
Locusts have been feared and revered throughout history.
Related to grasshoppers, these insects form enormous swarms that spread across regions, devouring crops and leaving serious agricultural damage in their wake.
Plagues of locusts have devastated societies since the Pharaohs led ancient Egypt, and they still wreak havoc today.
Locusts look like ordinary grasshoppers—most notably, they both have big hind legs that help them hop or jump.
They sometimes share the solitary lifestyle of a grasshopper, too.
However, locust behavior can be something else entirely.
During dry spells, solitary locusts are forced together in the patchy areas of land with remaining vegetation.
This sudden crowding releases serotonin in their central nervous systems that makes locusts more sociable and promotes rapid movements and more varied appetite.
When rains return—producing moist soil and abundant green plants—those environmental conditions create a perfect storm: Locusts begin to produce rapidly and become even more crowded together.
In these circumstances, they shift completely from their solitary lifestyle to a group lifestyle in what’s called the gregarious phase.
Locusts can even change color and body shape when they move into this phase.
Their endurance increases and even their brains get larger.
Locusts can become gregarious at any point in their lifecycle.
On hatching, a locust emerges wingless as a nonflying nymph, which can be either solitary or gregarious.
A nymph can also change between behavior phases before becoming a flying adult after 24 to 95 days.
Locust swarms are typically in motion and can cover vast distances—some species may travel 81 miles or more a day.
They can stay in the air for long periods, regularly taking nonstop trips across the Red Sea.
In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain, while in 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean, a trip of more than 3,100 miles in just 10 days.
Locust swarms devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage, which can lead to famine and starvation.
Locusts occur in many parts of the world, but today locusts are most destructive in subsistence farming regions of Africa.
Desert locusts
The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is a notorious species.
Found in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, this species inhabits an area of about six million square miles, or 30 countries, during a quiet period.
During a plague, when large swarms descend upon a region, however, these locusts can spread out across some 60 countries and cover a fifth of Earth's land surface.
Desert locust plagues threaten the economic livelihood of a tenth of humans.
A desert locust swarm can be 460 square miles in size and pack between 40 and 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile.
Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day.
To put it into context, a swarm the size of Paris can eat the same amount of food in one day as half the population of France.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/locusts
Back to Joel, in verse 2 of today’s passage points to a day of clouds and thick darkness (locusts so thick that they would block out the sun).
Based on what we just learned from National Geographic, this would of been swarms that would have covered 70-80 miles and could stretch from the Mediterranean Sea to the east of the Dead Sea.
Nothing like never seen before or to come.
Wow!
I have a hard time imagining just how devastating this would be.
But it wouldn’t be just the locusts.
Verse three points to a fire which would devour before and after the locusts.
Verses 4-9 gives us various images of what their advance would look like:
• Vv. 4-5 Looks and sounds like horses pulling chariots.
Appearance, noise of the chariots, crackling fire - like a mighty army ready for battle.
• Vs. 6 The people would be so scared that their faces would grow flush and they would be in anguish
• Vs. 7 Joel goes on to compare the locusts to an invading army “like”
• Vv. 8-9 They cannot be stopped or contained.
Nothing works to stop them.
Beauty turns to desolation - nothing escapes the destruction
• Vs. 10 We now move from this temporal judgment of God to the future judgment of God.
• Vs. 11 Now the LORD stands before His people with this final warning.
o “He is strong that executeth His word.”
In other words you better believe He is serious.
o God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that is what he reaps.
o “Who can abide (endure) it?”
No one!
The army would have sure success.
2. The Reply To God’s Judgment (12-13)
• Lord save me!
Joel implores the people to pray.
He pleads with each person to approach God with a repentant heart since they know they can’t endure what is happening.
Joel presents God’s deep concern for his people.
He emphasizes the need of the people to return to God in true repentance and total reliance on him.
• As our Father God gives us a choice, but longs for us to come to him in repentance and to rely on him in relationship.
But we must all do it God’s way - we must:
o Acknowledgment - acknowlege what we have done to sin against God
o Separation - separate ourselves from our former way of life.
o Repentance - turn the course of our lives by being willing to let God guide us.
• It must be a heart changing moment, not some superficial act of worship.
• The Pharisees were the experts in this type of external religious piety, but inside they were empty - they had missed the point of relationship, repentance, and obedience.
• Jesus warned often against doing this very thing.
• I don’t care if you belong to every church in the area, or if you go to church every single day of your life……It all means nothing unless we clean the inside of the cup.
• Jesus says clean the inside first and then the outside will become clean also.
o For so long we seemed to get that backwards.
o Righteousness works from the inside out.
• “Turn unto the LORD your God;” quit trying to do it alone, struggling to clean up the outside problems of your life.
Response - salvation, sanctification, rededication
COMMUNION
RITUAL
The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again.
It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.
The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit.
It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.
All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ.
We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.
In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
And so we pray:
PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION:
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