Joel: Locusts, Return, and the Outpouring

The Pattern

Joel is three chapters, and it moves in three steps. A disaster strikes, the people are called to return, and Yahuah answers with more than He took. Hold the three steps and the whole book is held.

• The locusts (1:1–2:11): the land is stripped, and the day of Yahuah is near.
• The return (2:12–27): turn with the whole heart, and Yahuah restores the years.
• The outpouring (2:28–3:21): the spirit on all flesh, and the nations judged.

One phrase holds it together: the day of Yahuah appears five times (1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14). Each time it is nearer and larger. It begins as a locust plague in Judah and ends as the judgment of every nation.

The Setting

Joel gives no king and no date. What he gives is a farm emergency: a locust plague so complete that the grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of Yahuah (1:9). When the field fails, the altar fails with it. Joel reads the plague as a message and calls it what it is: a forerunner of the day of Yahuah.

1. The Locusts (1:1–2:11)

That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. (Joel 1:4)

What happens: wave after wave strips the land. Vines, fig trees, wheat and barley are gone, the priests mourn, and the cattle groan (1:10–18). In chapter 2 the locusts become an army: Blow ye the trumpet in Zion … for the day of Yahuah cometh (2:1).

Watch for: Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children (1:3). Joel wants the disaster remembered for generations, because it is a lesson about the day still to come: who can abide it? (2:11).

2. The Return (2:12–27)

Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Yahuah your Elohim: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. (Joel 2:12–13)

What happens: the trumpet blows again, this time for a fast and a solemn assembly (2:15). Yahuah answers: I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten (2:25). The threshing floors fill with wheat and the vats overflow (2:24).

Watch for: the rain of 2:23. The Hebrew for the former rain moderately is hammoreh litsdaqah, which can be read the teacher for righteousness — the KJV margin gives it. The rain that restores the harvest and the teaching that restores the people use the same word.

And: I am Yahuah your Elohim, and none else (2:27). One, with no second.

3. The Outpouring (2:28–3:21)

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh … And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Yahuah shall be delivered. (Joel 2:28, 32)

What happens: the spirit falls on sons and daughters, old men and young, servants and handmaids (2:28–29). Then the nations are gathered to the valley of Jehoshaphat — the name means Yahuah judges — and judged (3:2, 12). Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision (3:14).

Watch for: the fulfillment Peter named. On Shavuot in Jerusalem, he stood up and said, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel (Acts 2:16). Shavuot is the feast of the firstfruits of wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22). The spirit fell at the feast of the very wheat harvest Joel had promised to restore.

And: Joel reverses Isaiah and Micah. They said beat their swords into plowshares (Micah 4:3). Joel tells the nations to beat your plowshares into swords (3:10), arming for a battle they will lose.

Three Pulpit Errors Joel Answers

• Acts 2 is the birthday of a new religion. The disciples were in Jerusalem keeping Shavuot, a commanded Torah feast (Leviticus 23:15–21). Peter explained what happened from Joel, a Hebrew prophet. The spirit came to people keeping Yahuah’s calendar, on Yahuah’s feast.
• Calling on the name proves Yahushua is Yahuah (Romans 10:13). Joel names the name: Yahuah. In the same sermon that quotes Joel, Peter says Elohim hath made Yahushua both master and Messiah (Acts 2:36). The One who makes is not the one made.
• Rend your heart, not your garments means outward obedience does not matter. The same verse commands fasting, weeping, and mourning, and the next commands a trumpet and a solemn assembly (2:12, 15). Joel wants the heart and the walk, not the heart instead of the walk.

Where Joel Points Next

Joel ends with water: a fountain shall come forth of the house of Yahuah (3:18), and Yahuah dwelleth in Zion (3:21). Revelation finishes the picture with a pure river of the water of life flowing from the throne (Revelation 22:1), in a city where Yahuah dwells with His people (Revelation 21:3).