A Harvest to Remember
Joel 2:23-32
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Key Text: Joel 28-29
“Then afterward
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”
Picture yourself as an ancient subsistence farmer whose fields of wheat and barley provide grain for the simple bread your family relies on for survival. Imagine the hard work that goes into removing rocks and tilling the soil, perhaps with the help of an ox or donkey, then sowing the seed by hand, raking the field, and praying for rain.
Let’s say it’s a good year for rain, and the grain grows tall. As it ripens, you and the family smile with anticipation in knowing there will be grain enough to grind into flour for each day’s bread until the next harvest. Life is good.
But then.
Then the horizon grows dark with a massive and noisy cloud of locusts. The cloud is thick and wide and hungry. The locusts swarm over your homes and your fields and every other field for many miles around. They eat with abandon and move on only when nothing remains.
You are devastated, and so is everyone else in the small country in which you live. There is no international relief organization to help. Hunger becomes rampant. Tensions rise. Neighbors steal grain that others have carefully preserved to sow the next crop. Bodies grow thin. Children starve.
Would you be in a mood to pray for a better day?
Days of trial
Something like this scenario apparently lay behind the hopeful preaching of Joel, a little-known prophet who lived in and about Jerusalem at some desperate time in Judah’s history. The superscription of the book names only Joel and his father, giving no clue as to the date of his preaching. We cannot be certain, but some evidence suggests that he lived in the neighborhood of 400 BCE, more than a century after exiles were allowed to return from Babylon and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (for more, see “The Hardest Question” in the online resources).
The locust plague was apparently accompanied by a drought so severe that it would become legendary (1:2-12), and Joel interpreted the hard times as divine punishment for the people’s shortcomings. So, he called on the elders and priests to proclaim a fast and a solemn assembly, leading the people in a time of mourning and repentance (1:8-14), to which he added his own lament (1:19-20).
While predicting further trials (2:1-11), Joel spoke for Yahweh in calling the people to “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing” (2:12).
Basing his sermons on the covenant theology in which God promised blessings to the faithful and showed grace to the penitent, Joel quoted from Exod. 34:6 as he pleaded: “Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”
“Who knows whether he will not turn and relent?” Joel asked, “… and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God?” (2:13-14).
The call to lament continues in 2:15-17, a plea for God to spare the people lest they become a derisive byword among other peoples, who might taunt: “Where is their God?”
Days of plenty (vv. 23-27)
The ardent plea would bring a response, Joel believed. He proclaimed that Yahweh would take pity on the people and restore the fertility of the land so they could eat and be satisfied without fear of either armies or drought (2:18-22).
This brings us to our text for the day, which is reminiscent of many psalms of lament in which a plaintive cry is followed by an outburst of praise. “O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God,” Joel declared, “for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil” (vv. 23-24).
God would “repay” Israel for what the army of locusts had stolen, Joel said. He used the same four-fold terminology for the ravaging insects he had employed in 1:4, speaking of the “cutting locust,” “swarming locust,” “hopping locust,” and “destroying locust.” [DD] With God’s blessing, the locusts would depart, the rains would come, and the people would have more than enough to eat and drink. Soon their coming prosperity would wipe away the shame of their former penury (v. 26).
The promised demonstration of divine favor had a purpose beyond the provision of food, however. The people would learn an important spiritual lesson: “You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other” (v. 27a). [DD]
Just as certainly as the people needed food, they needed God – and the same is true for us. Few of us know what it is to face real hunger. We live in a land of abundance where food is plentiful and much of it is cheap. If anything, we suffer from having too much food too easily available.
But spiritual hunger is another matter. We may be surrounded by churches, own several Bibles, have many Christian friends, and still live in spiritual poverty. Joel’s call for lamentation and repentance is ever pertinent to those who have let the lure of materialism or the pressures of power or the appeal of self-centered desires take over like a cloud of locusts, leaving little room in their lives for God.
Joel reminds us that God is in our midst and available to us – how available are we to God?
Days to come (vv. 28-32)
If vv. 23-27 brought good news, vv. 28-32 are even better. Joel looked further ahead, and spoke these memorable words in behalf of Yahweh:
“Then afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
“I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls” (vv. 28-32: the Hebrew Bible numbers the verses differently, with 2:28-32 set apart in a new chapter, appearing as 3:1-5).
Joel’s prophecy looked to a time when there would be no distinction between men and women, old and young, slave and free. In that day God’s Spirit would no longer be available to rare prophets alone, but to everyone: sons and daughters would prophesy, old and young would have spiritual dreams and visions, even slaves would have full access to God’s Spirit. [DD]
Using typical “day of the LORD” terminology, Joel spoke of cosmic portents visible in the heavens before God’s awesome inbreaking, when “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
If these verses sound familiar, it’s because Peter quoted them almost verbatim as the text of the first Christian sermon known to us (the sermon is found in Acts 2:14-35; the citation from Joel is in vv. 16-21). On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit descended on the gathered believers and they began to speak in various tongues, Peter defended their unusual behavior by arguing that Joel’s prophecy had come to pass.
The believers spoke not only in new tongues, but with power, which Peter saw as unmistakable evidence of the Spirit’s presence. Given that he included the prediction of cosmic portents in his citation, Peter must have concluded that the darkening of the sun and earthquakes reported on the afternoon of Jesus’ crucifixion (Matt. 27:50-54, Luke 23:44-48) had fulfilled Joel’s promise of heavenly signs marking the coming of a new age.
Things had looked dark for a long time. The deliverance Israel had long hoped for had not come. But now, there was Jesus. But now, there was the Spirit. But now, something new and different and vital and growing was happening. But now, God was at work in the world in a tangible way, and anyone could see it working in the lives of the disciples, and anyone who denied it was wearing blinders.
Death no longer reigned. Despair was no longer in command. The dark plague of doom no longer hung over the future because Christ had come, and had overcome, and had brought light and life into the world.
The new life and spiritual endowment that Joel prophesied and that Peter proclaimed was available to everyone: “everyone who calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
That was good news, and it still is. Christ desires to dwell in our midst – in our very lives – and to give us power to live and to love and to overcome even the darkest of days.
When we face bleak times in our lives, times that drive us to desperate prayer, we may be confident that God is still gracious and compassionate and willing to pour out the Spirit of Christ upon us.
Because of this, we may join Joel’s chorus in singing “O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God” (v. 23a).
Have you done any singing lately?
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Joel 2:23-32
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
When things seem hard, sometimes our students just need a little hope; or to realize that they have hope. We can stand by our students as they struggle. We can hold them when they cry in pain. We also need to remind them that there is hope; not at the end of their struggle, but during their struggle. Hope is powerful. Be that source of hope for your students.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Joel 2:23-32
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Let it Grow” from The Lorax
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