Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun
Come Lord, join us here today
This world is not
Always
As we wish
Still
On hard days
We thank you
When trouble comes
We thank you
When disappointments mount
We thank you
When sorrow visits
We thank you
We thank you
Not because our world is so perfect
Not because you have checked off
Our every want and aspiration
But because you meet us
In the world as it is
Loving us
Caring for us
Transforming us
Into whole people
At peace
Able to love well
In the world
As it really is
For this we thank you
Amen
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
Intro: Friday our nation observed the tragedies of “9/11″ and those we lost
Many of us remember the very moment when we first heart of it
– for several hours we could hardly breathe
• we watched endless reruns of two airliners, smashing into the iconic “Twin Towers” in New York City
◦ we didn’t want to see it, but we couldn’t look away
◦ we could not avoid the reality of it
• and each time we looked, we felt helpless, outrage, and extreme sadness
– every disaster of that magnitude, wounds a country’s soul
• we don’t just walk away and return to our usual routine
◦ it creates a fog of confusion that we feel we must sort out
◦ it stirs up insecurities that leave us groping for answers
• for sometime after, we remain alert, sensitive, aware
◦ for awhile, we’re ready to listen; we’re paying attention and eager to learn
This is the right time for us to approach the prophecies of Joel
Israel was experiencing a catastrophic trauma
– it was not localized, but spread across the entire nation
• at times in this first chapter, Joel sounds like a newscaster;
◦ reporting the wide range of destruction
◦ the food source of the entire country was running out
• Joel, however, was not merely delivering a report;
◦ he was delivering “The word of the LORD”
Joel is not overdoing the drama of the situation
The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 Hear this, you elders;
give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.
4 What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten Joel 1:1-4
Joel wants his message to reach everyone:
– beginning with leaders then extending to all the native residents
• looking back, can they recall anything like this in their ancestors’ past?
• then, looking to the future, the crisis is so huge, the story of it will be told for generations to come
– after the build up, we learn the nature of the calamity: locusts
• locust invasions have always threatened that part of world
◦ from north eastern Africa extending to Saudi Arabia
◦ even in present time, nations in that area receive alerts and defend themselves against them
• there are dozens of locust species
◦ Joel identified only four – and they arrived one after another
◦ he paints a vivid picture of their swarms in chapter 2, where we read:
“Like the Garden of Eden was the land before it,
and behind it desolate desert,
nor does anything escape it” (v. 3, R. Alter’s translation)
To this point, and through the chapter,
– Joel doesn’t say anything about this invasion being a punishment
• so far it seems to be a natural disaster
• nevertheless, it has, or should have, a specific effect (as we’ll see)
– I don’t want to be someone who always jumps to judgment, thinking a person’s tragedy is punishment
• in Luke 13, someone mentioned to Jesus a tragic event
◦ Jesus’ response was something like:
“Do you assume they must have been terrible sinners to die like that?”
“Do your think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this way? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:1-5)
◦ “likewise” – that is, die unexpectedly without having taking the opportunity to repent
(i.e., change their lives by dedicating themselves to God and the teaching and person of Jesus)
• sometimes we may want to think a fatality is “judgment”
◦ but I think that’s an explanation scenario we invent,
◦ so we can tell ourselves, “That isn’t going to happen to me”
Joel begins to give initial counsel regarding an appropriate initial response
Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has come up against my land,
powerful and beyond number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth Joel 1:5-8
“drunkards” is a strong term in English; it could more literally be translated “drinkers of wine”
– wine connoisseurs for whom it was a pleasurable pastime
• I’m going to go off topic for a moment
In the nineteenth and first half of twentieth centuries,
– alcoholics were a favorite target of fundamentalist preachers
• if you wanted to see what sin could do to a person’s life,
◦ just look at that “drunkard” lying in the gutter
◦ so if people leaving church spotted an alcoholic,
▫ they’d shake their heads and perhaps rebuke that person
• it’s not surprising that many alcoholics responded in kind
“You hate me, so I’m going to hate you right back”
◦ we successfully alienated them
◦ and not surprisingly, they wanted nothing to do with God
– eventually, it took former alcoholics to bring God to other alcoholics
• but we’ve done this with the “sins” of other people as well
◦ people whose sins are not the same as ours
◦ many preachers have their set lists of sinners
• I don’t believe we’re doing what God has called us to do,
◦ if we’re building barricades rather than bridges
Now, back to Joel’s concern
– our culture provides us with all sorts of intoxicants
• we can numb our minds with TV, social media, novels
• I think it’s normal to cherish our down time
◦ we need to give our bodies and brains some rest
◦ but when being oblivious becomes a way of life, we are in trouble
– I believe Joel is trying to stir up his readers to pay attention
• they were passing through a catastrophic event and they needed to hear from God
Joel uses the classic flourish of Old Testament writers, and especially prophets
– their poetry is picturesque, at times embellished with strong phrases
• they use lots of metaphors and hyperbole frequently
◦ it can take some time to get used to their non-literal style
◦ but even then, what their underlying message was meant to be taken literally
• so locusts do not have teeth like a lion
◦ but when you look at the barren landscape they leave, you would think they did
– in verse 8, Joel illustrates an expression of grief and despair
• it brings home how desperate everyone would feel
Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth
Joel has a few words for the priests (and farmers)
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
the ministers of the Lord.
10 The fields are destroyed,
the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed,
the wine dries up,
the oil languishes.
11 Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord Joel 1:9-14
Worship in Israel had been effectively terminated
– there was nothing to bring to the temple as an offering
• no animal sacrifices and no grain offerings
• the landscape is so ravaged that even “the soil mourns” (v. 10)
There’s a word Joel will use five times from here to end of chapter
– Yaw-bashe – “dried up” – it includes:
• new wine, the vine, new grain, and channels of water
◦ but here in v. 12, Joel says,
“for joy has dried up
for the sons of man”
• this is the coup de grace
◦ loss of everything has squeezed the last ounce of joy from them
◦ the time had come for a serious response: “Pronounce a fast”
▫ again, like at the beginning, the call is sent out to the leaders and all residents
This is Joel’s lament, his song of grief
15 Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
16 Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
17 The seed shrivels under the clods;
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because the grain has dried up.
18 How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 To you, O Lord, I call.
For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness Joel 1:15-20
He sings about shortages, emptiness, and even livestock groan
In verses 19-20, he sings his prayer
– he calls on God, but does not make a specific request
• instead, he describes the desperate landscape,
◦ where everything “yearns” for God
• this is his recognition that God is their only hope
◦ but he is not so bold as to tell God how to fix the situation
Conclusion: To this point, Joel has not indicated this invasion was a punishment
Other than the plagues God brought on Egypt,
I don’t think God sends locusts to impoverish or starve people
But I do believe that he will use the natural disasters that occur to get our attention
God is always speaking to us
and much of the time, we are not listening
We’re usually distracted by other things – trivial things
So when we experience an unavoidable crisis
he takes advantage of the opportunity to get our attention,
“Listening” in troubled times is extremely important
If we try – if we make a real effort to hear and obey –
God makes use of our alertness, our concern,
and our need to “do something!”
I believe that is what Joel is telling us
When our world falls apart – listen to God
Better yet, have a regular practice of checking in and listening every day