Hi James and Ellen,
Joel was a prophet who God gave an epiphany. Joel’s dad’s name was Pethuel. Pethuel gave his kid a name that means ‘Jehovah is God’. Joel’s vocational call from God was to be a prophet to His special chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s southern kingdom which was called Judah. Joel – about 2,800 years ago, scribed a future flash that was sent to him from God – as God the Father, through God – as God the Spirit. While Joash was at this time the king who was ruling over the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were God’s specially chosen guys and gals, who were living in Isreal’s southern kingdom – in the land area that was once known as Canaan – the land that God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals to always have to live in as their very own land if . . . a daunting calamitous, chaotic occurrence took place that was divinely orchestrated by God or which God through His omnipotence allowed to take place had God enlightening Joel as to what the future was going to like for his fellow countrymen – who were the Israelite people group guys and gals, as well as to what the future was going to like for Philistine, Phoenician, Egyptian and Edomite guys and gals. God used a devastating locust plague to wake up Joel to the spiritual slippery slope that was sending his compatriots – who were the Israelite people group guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah, sliding into perdition. The ravaging locusts were metaphorically used by God to open up Joel’s eyes to the ravages that were going to happen to his extended family because of their abject disobedience to God’s mandate to only worship Him and to the ruination that was going to happen to the guys and gals who were living in Palestine, Phoenicia, Egypt and Edom who not only oppressed His specially chosen guys and gals but who were also influential in getting His specially chosen guys and gals to worship the same inanimate manmade wood, rock, clay and metal idol gods that they worshipped.
The Joel Book’s three chapters can be an antidote resource for combating sin’s continual cunning connivery or they can be a prescription resource for curing sin’s constant colluding corruption. The Joel Book can also be used as a foretaste of the future Day of the Lord. Sin in the Joel Book is embodied as locusts. Just as nothing can escape the ravenous appetite of a swarm of locusts, no guy, gal or kid can avoid sin’s rapacious cravings. Just as a swarm of locusts will completely denude a field, sin will utterly destroy a life. Just as locusts can be eradicated from a region, so can sin be purged from a lifestyle. Even though the Joel Book looks at sin and locusts as being synonymous, a locust can be safely eaten while an acquiescence to sin will poison. God uses Joel to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s southern kingdom to genuinely express through mourning their sincere, heartfelt consternation for their illicit disobedience to His mandates and to proactively convey through fasting and prayer their genuine, wholehearted repentance for their rampant vileness. God uses Joel to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s southern kingdom that if they did not do what He was telling them through Joel to do that a darkened sky caused by a swarm of locusts will not begin to compare to a life filled with darkness that they would experience if they continued on the lifestyle track that they were blindly pursuing. God uses Joel to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel’s southern kingdom that if they do what He has told them to do – which is to be sincerely sorry for their disobedience to Him and to faithfully take the steps to rebuild a relationship with Him, that He will show pity on them by giving them relief from the horrible anguishes that He was having them go through. The real message or teaching though that God wanted to get out for posterity through the Joel Book was that He was going to release His Holy Spirit on all guys, gals and kids.
The United States of America was founded on a religious freedom to worship God. Your grandpaa thinks that if Joel was alive today someplace in the United States, that Joel would be very apoplectic about the ever dimming spirituality that is taking place in another land that God gave to guys, gals and kids to live their lives solely for Him. Your grandpaa believes that the United States has been and is being despoiled by guys and gals whose self-centered desire is that everything that takes place in the United States should be centered around their polluted lifestyles. The United States populace decided three and a half years ago (about 18 years ago now at the editing of this missive) to vote in a guy as President who was promising them dramatic changes in the ways that they would be able to live life. Guys and gals believed that the guy was actually promising them pocket money that they could use on whatever, that they would not need to have a work ethic and that other people’s money would become their money. The guy has absolutely no compunction about creating massive debt. The guy uses blame casting to deflect his weak-kneed leadership. The guy invokes God’s name for his political ambition. God to your grandpaa at this time is unfolding unprecedented weather phenomena, unparalleled global volatility and unmatched incompetent leadership to warn the guys and gals who are living in the United States that if they do not repent that . . . your grandpaa really thinks that if Christ-follower fellowship leaders do not stop focusing on numbers, if they do not intentionally make imparting Biblical knowledge a priority and if they do not push back against the Unites States Supreme Courts’ legalization of embryo assassinations and their outlawing of Bible reading and of praying in schools, the United States is doomed. (15 years have passed since this missive was first written. Socialist ideology is now embedded in the United States.)
Joel