Not that again!” You turn your head and roll your eyes. “I know, Mom. ‘Smoking can kill you.’ ‘If you don’t study harder you won’t get into college.’ ‘Make sure your friends share your values.’ ” Of course you get tired of hearing the same warnings all the time. The people in the prophet Joel’s time did too. But Joel keeps repeating his warnings. Why? Because the people of Joel’s day listened about as carefully as someone with ear buds on, with the music cranked. Joel 1:3–11 reminds us that not listening can lead to weeping, wailing, mourning, grief and despair.
Sometimes life just doesn’t seem like it’s worth living. One national survey indicated that about 24 percent of teenage girls consider suicide in any given year. Many attempt suicide. And some succeed. Joel describes some terrors that will drive many in Judah to despair. But he also gives them God’s wonderful promise: “Return to me with all your heart . . . I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:12, 25). One day you too are likely to be so hurt or disappointed you feel life isn’t worth living. But really, it is. Turn to God, and know that he will more than repay your pain with good things in your future.
Joel
Divine Judgment.
Joel predicts that at history’s end God will send a human army to swarm into the Holy Land and punish his sinning people. God punishes sin. But in the end God saves.