I. Introduction: What’s on the Other Side?
John Piper could not easily be taken for a light-minded person. He is a grave preacher and an accomplished theologian, having faithfully and wisely led a massive congregation of evangelical Christians for several decades in Minnesota; thus he is the perfect witness for a remarkable event that took place back in 2009…
I saw the fast-moving, misshapen, unusually-wide funnel over downtown Minneapolis from Seven Corners. I said to Kevin Dau, “That looks serious.”
It was. Serious in more ways than one. A friend who drove down to see the damage wrote,
“On a day when no severe weather was predicted or expected...a tornado forms, baffling the weather experts -- most saying they’ve never seen anything like it. It happens right in the city. The city: Minneapolis.
The tornado happens on a Wednesday...during the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s national convention in the Minneapolis Convention Center. The convention is using Central Lutheran across the street as its church. The church has set up tents around its building for this purpose.”
According to the ELCA’s printed convention schedule, at 2 PM on Wednesday, August 19, the 5th session of the convention was to begin. The main item of the session: “Consideration: Proposed Social Statement on Human Sexuality.” The issue is whether practicing homosexuality is a behaviour that should disqualify a person from the pastoral ministry.
The eyewitness of the damage continues:
“This curious tornado touches down just south of downtown and follows 35W straight towards the city center. It crosses I94. It is now downtown.
The time: 2PM.
The first buildings on the downtown side of I94 are the Minneapolis Convention Center and Central Lutheran. The tornado severely damages the convention center roof, shreds the tents, breaks off the steeple of Central Lutheran, splits what’s left of the steeple in two...and then lifts.” [From the Desiring God blog; August 19, 2009]
Many people witnessed this strange happening, and obviously it was an irrefutable rebuke by God to modern Christian liberalism.
You see, there are two camps of Christians: those who seek to be “up with the times,” who seek to be modern and hip and respectable according to the world’s intelligentsia; then there are the knuckle-scrappers who admire a ridiculously simplistic Biblical fundamentalism. What side was Jesus Christ always found to be on? Without exception he aligned with the latter; he always upheld the simple, straight-forward, literal understanding of even the most fantastic stories such as Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, the destruction of Sodom, Noah’s flood, and Jonah’s adventure in the sea creature.
Why is it so important to hold to Biblical fundamentalism? There are two categoric reasons: an uncompromising belief in the Bible is the only form of Christianity that can honour God, and it alone can bless humankind.
It alone can honour God because the Bible says throughout its pages that it is his perfect revelation to us…
You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness. My zeal has consumed me, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words. Your word is very pure, therefore Your servant loves it. I am small and despised, [yet] I do not forget Your precepts. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth. -- Psalm 119:138-142
All Scripture [is] God-breathed... -- 2 Timothy 3:16
Therefore, if we openly circumvent God’s words just to be “cool” according to progressive liberalism, not only does everyone see through such a silly façade, but we’re spitting directly into God’s merciful face, forsaking the gracious instruction he shed his blood to enliven.
The second problem mentioned above is that apostasy from sound doctrine curses humankind. Contrary to what the masses (even religious masses) generally say, theology does matter. If we forsake God’s holy theology laid forth plainly in the Bible it will have a detrimental effect on society; don’t believe me? Let’s look at two obvious errors in Western Christianity these days and think about their ill effects. First let’s look at the Roman Catholic Church’s view on the celibate priesthood.
Nowhere in the Bible is such a thing called for. God created food and sexual intercourse explicitly to enliven our dreary journey in this thorn-filled age...
Now the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away [or, apostatize] from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, in hypocrisy [or, insincerity] of liars, having been seared in their own conscience, forbidding to be marrying, [commanding] to be abstaining from foods which God created for receiving with thanksgiving by the [ones who are] faithful and have acknowledged the truth. -- 1 Timothy 4:1-3
Demons not only lead people to live a life of rampant promiscuity, but also a “saintly” ascetic one; so says the wise man Solomon…
Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them. -- Ecclesiastes 7:16-18
So the Roman church has openly violated Scripture and demanded priests be celibate. Now often this doesn’t mean priests our without sexual gratification; no, they just can’t get married. Is it not an amazing debauchery that a Christian system exists which frowns on marriage while allowing male leaders to engage in every other form of sexual pleasure? Is this not the height of godless, counter-intuitive stupidity? Talk about straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! Moreover, marriage is not a gnat; not only is it a rich privilege, but raising a family is a better means of growing character than any military training course in the world. People often flee to monasteries or to convents or to the priesthood to escape from reality, so how can these people be pastors of those in the trenches of life?
Now even though these sexually active “celibates” are clearly hurting their own souls, one might try to argue that this doesn’t affect society largely. I would disagree; nevertheless, there are bigger fish to fry these days when it comes to priestly sexuality. We all realize why so many children have been abused. If you do not allow normal men with normal urges into leadership positions then you have to let in odd balls with distorted desires, and that’s exactly what’s happened. So you see, a few lines from Moses and Paul were violated and look how many people have suffered violence and/or shipwreck of faith.
Now having bashed the Roman church a bit let’s bash the Protestants (or at least, a movement that was originally Protestant). I’m opposed to cessationalism, as I’ll touch on later; nevertheless it’s clear that one of the most shameful practices in the post-Reformation church has been unbridled charismaticism. Some of these people pretend to get “drunk” in the Spirit and stagger about embarrassingly, say the same few meaningless sentences over and over again and pretend it’s a supernatural tongue, believe they’re being led to bark like dogs or lay on people’s graves to catch some leaking unction from their corpses, etc.
Again you might say that such people are to be lamented but that they’re not really hurting anyone; false. You see, their theology teaches them that everything in the Kingdom is getting better and better because of the victory of Christ and the power of the outpoured Holy Spirit. Therefore, it’s possible through faith to have every good thing this planet has to offer, especially health and wealth. I’ve sat in a service where a young teenager in a wheelchair was made to feel bad because he couldn’t stand up and walk; in the eyes of that congregation he obviously was faithless and deserved his prolonged affliction. Also, there are many horror stories of teenage girls being told that their lives were beyond repair as they had been wholly given up to demons, simply because they refused a leader’s counsel. Theology matters.
Now I could spin stories all day long of how unbiblical Christianity has harmed the world, yet I want to take a step back from the trees and view the forest…
When God came in the flesh and walked along the shores of Galilee, the overriding theological problem among the people was the lack of understanding concerning the gracious salvation that can be found in the righteousness of the Godhead alone. It’s not that words like grace or mercy or compassion couldn’t be found in Israel’s ancient liturgy, but just because you recite them doesn’t mean you truly understand their theological basis. Even today Judaism flows the same way (don’t get me wrong, I’m not wholly insulting Judaism; I’d happily join a synagogue, for I can’t get enough of the Old Testament). If you want to excel you have to add many things to your life; by the time you get finished praying your exhaustive prayer schedule and studying the voluminous Talmud (which you need to read for at least an hour a day if you hope to finish within seven years), all the while keeping up with your lifestyle of ceremonial mitzvot, who has time to actually get to know God?
We all know the result of what happened when petty legalism (and given the beliefs of the Sadducees you might add “crass materialism”) met Wisdom incarnate; yet what does the world look like 2,000 years later? Has the gentile world done a better job with the religion of Hashem? Absolutely not! All we gentiles have done is swiped the ball from the Jews and ran the opposite erroneous direction (all the while hating and despising God’s beloved Hebrews). Instead of stumbling over legalism we’ve stumbled over grace. Look at the nations of the post-Christian West. Look at the UK, letting the Lockerbie bomber out of jail after killing hundreds of people just so he could enjoy his latter days of life (regardless of the political motivations, many still agreed with the decision in the name of mercy). Is this not symptomatic of a nation that struggles with the idea of true justice?
But never mind nations, it’s the collective church I’m concerned with. En masse we gentile Christians have not only done a pretty pathetic job of guarding the Scriptures entrusted to us (i.e. the state of Hebrew textual criticism is ten times better than the state of Greek textual criticism; I trust the Rabbi who would hand a Torah scroll to me; I don’t trust the “hip” pseudo-scholar with their Origen-laced New Testament), but we’ve also done a pretty pathetic job of announcing God to the world. The Jews still worship the awesome, mysterious God of creation; we Christians have translated this One of power and justice into a cosmic teddy-bear. Christianity has morphed into a new religion, Nice-ianity. The word “No” is banished, as are the words “sin,” “hell,” “judgment,” “right/wrong,” “law,” “commandment,” and even male leadership.
And that brings us to our book at hand, the book of Joel. When every purple-clad effeminate minister whispers sweet nothings about how God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, the congregation is led on the wild goose chase of pursuing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness according to the world’s standards. Yet what did Jesus Christ say? “Blessed are the poor!” Not just the poor in Spirit, but the actual poor. What did his physical and spiritual brother Jacob say?
Now let the lowly brother [or, brother of humble circumstances] be rejoicing in his exaltation, but the rich [brother] in his humble state, because like a flower of grass he will pass away. -- James 1:9-10
And again…
Now listen! The rich [people], weep, wailing over your* miseries, the ones coming upon [you*]! Your* riches have rotted, and your* clothes have become moth-eaten. Your* gold and silver have corroded, and their rust will be for a testimony against you* and will consume your* flesh as fire. You* stored up [treasure] in [the] last days! -- James 5:1-3
I think Gandhi was right, and that Christians do not believe in the Sermon on the Mount. Yet life is hard, and that will never change this side of glory; people need to be inoculated against the pains and pressures through faith in the powerful God of providence and through prizing internal treasures. Moreover, they need to realize that his commandments and laws have been broken, “right” has been substituted for “wrong,” and he is about to enter into judgment with this world and send its inhabitants to hell for its sin. Most Christian leaders are very far from the footsteps of Christ, being either pagan, political, or pansies; Joel however is a timeless clarion call that should always be fully embraced. Everyone needs to hear this prophet yell. God is about to bring strange and awesome plagues upon this world, and you need to know, and you need to escape. Let’s now consider the words of Joel, for the platitudes of sugary sermons will melt in future heat, yet concerning the Old Testament Paul writes… “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11; NASB).
Before getting started let’s review a few notes that will help make sense of this book; also, this is a new translation of Joel, and I want to explain some of the features I’ve employed.
*The terms LORD, GOD, and Hashem are all ways to describe the personal name of God, often transliterated as Y-h-w-h or J-h-v-h.
*Unless otherwise stated, apart from Joel, which is my own translation, the Old Testament quotes are from the NASB and the New Testament are from the ALT3.
*The ALT3 distinguishes between singular and plural second person pronouns by means of an asterisk (*).
*This book mostly uses British spelling, except for the other Bible versions quoted, which normally use American spelling.
*Divine pronouns are normally not capitalized, unless they appear that way in Bible versions.
*Within quotes, words that appear in brackets are not in the original text, and were either added by the translators or are my personal comments, etc.
*In my version of Joel, the abbreviations “id” and “lit” are employed. “Id” means idiomatically; sometimes in seeking to be literal the text is a bit jarring; thus I’ve supplied a smoother alternate translation. “Lit” is just the opposite; sometimes the original words have been left a bit by the wayside, so “lit” alerts the reader to how the text literally reads.
*In wanting to relate the book of Joel as fully as possible I’ve often used amplifications. Instead of just choosing one word to translate the Hebrew I’ve used several. These alternate readings are separated from each other by use of a slash (/). However, sometimes when the alternate rendering has more than one word as its final entry it can lead to confusion. In these cases the alternate rendering ends in an asterisk; that way the reader knows when the description ends and the next part of the verse begins. For example, when a single-word alternate is given it looks like this: tree/wood; when the last alternate has several words it looks like this: tree/a wooded area*.
II. Coming over the Hills (1:1-4)
1 The word of Hashem that was to Joel [meaning, Hashem is God] the son of Pethuel [meaning perhaps, persuasion of God]. 2 Hear this O elders, and give ear all the inhabitants of the land/earth; has this been in your days, and [consider] if [this has been] in the days of your fathers? 3 On it [id- concerning this] recount to your children, and your children to their children, and their children to another generation...4 The remainder of the devouring [locust/bug] has the [swarming] locust eaten; and the remainder of the [swarming] locust has the licking-up [locust/bug] eaten; and the remainder of the licking-up [locust/bug] has the finishing-off/consuming [locust/bug] eaten.
I’m not going to waste a lot of time discussing the date of the writing because God doesn’t give us any real means of sureness. Liberals will generally give this book a late date as they do with as many prophets as possible; their normal justification is that Joel mentions a captivity in chapter 3. Well, Moses mentioned a captivity as well, so this hardly proves anything (plus there were other smaller captivities before Assyria/Babylon). I’ll quote Macarthur as to why an early date is more probable…
Dating the book relies solely on canonical position, historical allusions, and linguistic elements. Because of: 1) the lack of any mention of later world powers (Assyria, Babylon, or Persia); 2) the fact that Joel’s style is like that of Hosea and Amos rather than of the postexilic prophets; and 3) the verbal parallels with other early prophets (Joel 3:16/Amos 1:2; Joel 3:18/Amos 9:13), a late ninth-century-B.C. date, during the reign of Joash (c. 835–796 B.C.), seems most convincing (from his popular study Bible).
Also, I think another key hint is the term the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which we’ll discuss later. Even though I fully believe the Jews put Joel in its perfect place within the scroll of the Minor Prophets, it really doesn’t matter which date you choose. The book of Joel is an infinitive; it is timeless. It is the spirit of prophecy in a compact, written form.
Now let’s consider a few points from our text...
As is mentioned above, “Joel” means “Hashem is God.” This is a universal rendering. The definition of the name of his father however is far from universal. A couple of the translations that I think are worth mentioning are Alfred Jones’, who gives “Ingenuousness of God,” and John Macarthur’s, who gives “Openheartedness of/toward God.” The problem is that the word that comprises half the name is a bit broad, yet generally means “to be open.” This is why I chose “persuasion;” I believe the book of Joel is about God from his stellar throne ostensibly invading our time and space (in reality it’s his time and space and he’s always here), thereby getting our attention; he opens our minds, he persuades us, and we confess that Hashem -- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- is the powerful Creator and the sole Redeemer.
The next bit of translation difficulty comes in with the identification of the bugs. Generally speaking, it is always hard to be certain about the correct rendering of specific nouns, whether they are animals or gemstones or farming tools, etc. The older translations liked to view these as different species (see the King James Version or American Standard Version). The idea was that an amazing thing occurred in that so many various insects all managed to converge upon the land at the same time. I actually favour this translation, just as so many strange forces converged upon Job; perhaps Joel was an ancient commentator on specified complexity. Yet it’s difficult to find a respectable translation now-a-days to support this idea, so I won’t argue for it. Besides, I think there’s an important poignancy that becomes highlighted when the four bugs are viewed as all belonging to the same locust plague, for the book of Joel could easily be retitled the book of tsunamis, and no creature conveys this imagery quite like the locust...
The desert locust is notorious. Found in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, they inhabit some 60 countries and can cover one-fifth of Earth’s land surface. Desert locust plagues may threaten the economic livelihood of one-tenth of the world's humans.
A desert locust swarm can be 460 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) in size and pack between 40 and 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile (one square kilometer).
Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds (192 million kilograms) of plants every day.
Like the individual animals within them, locust swarms are typically in motion and can cover vast distances. In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain. In 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean. [http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/locust/]
Up until the time of the Major and Minor Prophets conflicts were different; they were much more local. Israel’s enemies consisted mainly of their immediate neighbours, and were sometimes just raiding bands that were fairly disorganized. However, whenever Israel and Judah begin to have monarchies that severely transgressed the laws of God, Hashem sent constant king-sized judgments. No more would bands of Amalekites or Philistines perpetually be the problem, but rather colossal, well-oiled war machines from the Far East. The prophet was preparing the people for this onslaught through calling attention to this disaster in nature, and then eventually applies his lesson to the coming conflicts before the advent of the Messianic Age. Taking the book of Joel as a whole, the prophet sees a multi-pronged scourging instrument that can have many applications, yet they all have this common theme of sweeping through and submerging the land of his people.
Joel primarily sees these bugs in Chapter 1; most commentators believe that because the prophet was so descriptive the infestation actually occurred during his lifetime. Many spiritually-minded commentators however also pick up on the important theme of the number four. The first great empire to hound Judah and subjugate it would be Babylon, followed by Medo-Persia, Greece, and then Rome. These four kingdoms are mentioned several times by Daniel and also by Zechariah in his vision of four horns and four artisans. Moreover, four is often a number associated with judgments in general. God told Ezekiel…
...For thus says the Lord GOD, “How much more when I send My four severe judgments against Jerusalem: sword, famine, wild beasts and plague to cut off man and beast from it!” -- 14:21
And these four plagues mentioned in Ezekiel have their match in the famed four-horsemen of the apocalypse. Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ begins to judge the world during the last seven years of this age, the troubles begin with four waves/horses of destruction: sword (horses 1 and 2), famine (horse 3), and widespread death (horse 4) with “sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:8; NASB).
While speaking of Revelation, fearsome locusts covering the earth are even mentioned in shocking detail in chapter 9, but we’ll have to wait until chapter 2 of Joel to elaborate on them.
III. The Lion-Like Nation (1:5-8)
5 Wake up [you] drunks and weep -- and howl all drinkers of wine, on account of sweet wine/pressed-out juice*, for it has been cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has come up against my land, mighty and without number; its teeth [are the] teeth of a lion, and [the] fangs/incisors of a lion/lioness [are] to it. 7 It/he has set my vine for a desolation/appalling waste* and my fig-tree for a fragmented thing/splintered thing*; stripping it/he has stripped it and thrown [it] away; its tendrils/twigs are made white. 8 Lament/wail like a virgin/maiden girded of sackcloth over the husband of her youth.
Here in this portion the tsunami in view are called lions. There is another semblance here to chapter 9 of Revelation, but we’ll leave it for later as well. There is also the easy comparison to Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, the first major empire to subjugate Judah (although Assyria came close); for Daniel describes this nation as a lion in chapter 7 of his book. Albeit there are allusions to armies of a larger variety, yet still we should probably believe that the prophet is focusing on just the bugs, as later in the prophecy God specifically calls locusts “his great army” (2:25). Nature is often employed to do God’s intervening work, just as it was largely the Russian snowflake that conquered Hitler’s Third Reich.
Now this section is bookended by a couple of interesting statements that cause us to lift our heads from the page and contemplate some of the judgment-worthy events of our modern times. I’ll start with the latter one…
Lament/wail like a virgin/maiden girded of sackcloth over the husband of her youth.
My oh my, this is an interesting statement! Now one of these documentary-happy channels (I think this time it’s the History Channel) is currently airing another new show where they “prove” how the Bible is filled with errors and misunderstandings. The trailer would seem shocking and provocative to anyone unfamiliar with this sort of thing, but really it’s just the typical, tired, anti-God argumentation that is as common as the day is long. After all, there is no way to stop someone determined to despise Scripture. For example, if all the Gospel writers wrote exactly the same thing it would be called a forgery; instead the Gospels differ a bit because of things like common redaction, linguistical issues, and textual criticism; thus via some animalistic, knee-jerk reactionism, the a priori heretic shouts “discrepancy!”
Let me just say before continuing that the genre of documentaries in general is shameful; there’s not a more sinister form of information out there these days. For example, the Fox network aired one several years ago questioning the moon landing and this hapless theory instantly gained myriads of ardent followers. It was all a load of hooey, but that doesn’t matter; a “documentary” gives it an air of respectability that often causes people to accept the idea proposed without question.
I remember seeing such a show where the whole premise was that Paul was an epileptic who fell off his donkey and bumped his head, thus Christianity was born. Now that’s daft enough, but the man who presented it rushed about -- as if in a newsroom -- in front of people frantically working at computers. It gave the sense that the computer age had cracked the Paul-code once and for all! Yet it was obviously just gimmicky rubbish. There is no “detect an ancient epileptic” computer program. The Discovery Channel and the History Channel are the new Mills and Boon. The amount of complete dung repackaged in “academic” documentary form that spews from these outlets could fill all the sewers in the world.
Back to the point, a trailer highlighted the old, tired argument that the Hebrew word alma doesn’t mean “virgin.” Boy oh boy, is there nothing else to talk about than this? A sea of ink has been spilled over that little word alma! Anyway, here in Joel we have an interesting use of the term bethulah. You see, those who attack the translation of “virgin” for alma (which dates back to the ancient Jewish Septuagint) in Isaiah 7 often say that if the prophet really wanted to say “virgin” he would have used bethulah instead of alma. Well, here a bethulah has a husband, thus it can’t be insisted upon as a clear-cut substitute.
And while we’re keeping score, just out of curiosity I typed Isaiah 7:14 into Google Translate using the Hebrew Aleppo Codex. Here’s what came up (as of November 2014; I’m sure it will be changed if anyone makes a big enough deal about it, although I have a screenshot saved to my computer either way)…
So let my lord is you - sign a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel
Obviously the translation is a bit rough, but clearly at least Google didn’t seem to mind translating alma as “virgin.”
Also, I know it’s completely unrelated, but I can’t resist showing Google’s version of the highly contested Zechariah 12:10…
And poured on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication and looked at me whom they have pierced (again, I have a screen shot in case this changes)...
You see, supposed academics can always hold back the truth in unrighteousness if they want. They can stand up and sound very convincing while bashing the Bible, but it doesn’t mean they are right. There are good, solid reasons why we believers in Jesus Christ hold to our faith; we’ve heard every objection and have provided answers for them all. I write this because I particularly want to encourage young people and young believers not to flinch in the face of pseudo-scholarship, for their barrages will only get worse. We need to have a higher criticism when it comes to people who criticize the Scriptures. One of the greatest reasons God judges the world according to Paul in Romans 1 is when people intentionally stymie the truth. If the truth is destroyed from the earth then there’s no longer any hope, and if there’s no longer any hope, then all that’s left to do is to destroy the remaining chaff.
Another major means of divine judgment that relates to our culture can be found in the first line from the above portion of Joel…
Wake up [you] drunks and weep -- and howl all drinkers of wine, on account of sweet wine/pressed-out juice*; for it is has been cut off from your mouth.
Life is stressful, very stressful. I think this is the age of acute anxiety, even though according to Darwinists things just keep on gettin’ better and better. Many pastors and teachers look at the number of people on mood altering drugs and balk (according to a recent article in Britain’s Daily Mail there were 53 million prescriptions this past year, enough for everyone in the UK to receive one); I do not balk. I believe many people legiti