The description of the marching troops chilled even the bravest heart:
Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and might army comes…before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them a desert waste…they charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers…they climb into houses; like thieves they enter through windows.
What powerful army invaded Judah? Not one of men, but rather an army of locusts, and Joel described the terrible devastation this pitiless force unleashed on the land.
Locust swarms still create havoc in parts of the world today, including the Great Plains of the United States. I’ve never experienced one, and hope my record continues. An occasional cricket in our house drives me crazy.
Joel’s words pushed his listeners to realize how far they strayed from the Lord, and to now soften their hearts:
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
The locusts remained— but perhaps God would stay his hand of judgement and drive them away?
I hope I don’t need a house full of grasshoppers to contemplate the gracious and compassionate nature of the Lord. But when calamity strikes, Joel’s words serve as a wake-up call to open my heart to the Lord and his purposes in my life.
Joel in week thirty of reading the Bible cover to cover
Joel 2:25 is one my favorite passages and marks a turning point in my life. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming [a]locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.