JOEL יואל

The locust outbreaks and attacks on people’s property represent destruction and devastation. Due to their incredible ability to destroy crops and property, swarms of locusts are used as a symbol of evil forces throughout the Bible.

In a more hopeful vein, the second chapter of Joel poetically describes an attack by an army of soldiers in imagery like that found in Revelation and Jeremiah, where an apocalyptic world is invaded by an army of soldiers who look like locusts.

Yet there is a promise of relief from the bad times brought on by locusts in Joel 2:25: “I will give back to you the years that the locust has eaten.” If locust outbreaks represent bad times, either societal or personal, this verse gives us hope. A bad time, for example, a period with a depressed mood, a job loss, or a bad relationship, will end and our spirit will be restored according to Joel 2:25. God speaks through the prophet Joel with a promise to “give back” happiness. There are many good years of farming, of living when the locusts won’t swarm.

Besides representing a sudden stroke of bad luck, a locust outbreak may represent the frustration of loss after much personal effort, the futility of working without God’s blessing. In a lengthy, Old Testament warning listing curses for the Israelites’ disobedience to God, the Bible says, “You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it” (Deuteronomy 28:38).

The Valley of Josaphat (variants: Valley of Jehoshaphat and Valley of Yehoshephat) is a Biblical place mentioned by name in the Book of Joel (Joel 3:2 and 3:12): “I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: “Then I will enter into judgment with them there”, on behalf of my people and for My inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and they have divided up My land.”; “Let the nations be roused; Let the nations be aroused And come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side”.

This location is also referred to as the Valley of Decision. It is the location of Jehovah‘s inflictions on Zion‘s enemies. The Bible mentions the Valley of Jehoshaphat only twice and identifies it as the final place where God will judge the nations that will gather in this valley in order to try to destroy Israel.

The book of Joel describes this event as a gathering of all of the armies of the world into this Valley, where the Lord will pronounce judgment on all of them. The predicted and foreseen number of deaths is so extraordinarily high on this day of divine judgment that it will take seven months for the Israelis to burry all of the dead men (Ezekiel 39:12-16). The dead ones will have their resting place under the soil of Israel and will never return home.

By the time Joel was called to minister to Judah, the Southern Kingdom had been in a state of disarray and decline for years, both economically and spiritually.

Rival nations and city states such as Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia had made frequent incursions into Israel, and a recent locust plague and drought had devastated Judah’s economy (Joel 1:4). Needless to say, Judah was weak from the inside out. It was a time of national mourning, where, as Joel writes, “all the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up from the sons of men” (Joel 1:12).

Like many biblical prophets, Joel was sent by God to get the people’s attention in a time of depression and decline. However, unlike many prophets, Joel does not address specific sin or idolatry on the part of the Judah. Rather, he uses the recent calamity of the locust plague to teach a prophetic lesson.

Speaking to the elders of Judah, Joel calls all members of society to take seriously the current locust plague. Because as bad as this calamity was, it was nothing in comparison to what was to come from God if the people did not repent and turn back to Him.

Looking back at the economic hardship brought on by the locust plague was intended to encourage the people to look forward to the great and terrible Day of the Lord, a phrase mentioned nineteen times by eight different Bible prophets, including Isaiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, and Joel.

There are over 30 mentions of locusts in the Bible, in 17 books. Bible passages with detailed images of locusts and historical accounts of locusts’ devastation to crops are found in Exodus, Psalms, Jeremiah, Joel, and Revelation.

A locust is a special kind of grasshopper that adapts its body and behavior to swarm when environmental conditions are right—usually when there’s a lot of rainfall. Then their remarkable transformation in brain, color, size, and attraction to one another draws them into swarms damaging crops over wide areas of land. A frightening fact about locusts is a 10 to 16-fold increase in locust numbers occurs from one generation to the next.

Probably the most familiar Biblical description of locusts is found in Exodus. When Moses asks Pharaoh to “Let my people go” (Exodus 10:3b)—let the Israelites leave their miserable bondage in Egypt—and Pharaoh doesn’t respond, God takes over by releasing ten plagues on Egypt. The eighth plague is a locust attack.

The plagues are designed by God to display his power, “. . . that you may know that I am the Lord” (Exodus 10:2b) and convince Pharaoh to listen to Moses’ request. The plague of locusts comes between the plague of hail, which flattens important ancient Egyptian crop plants like flax and barley, and the plague of darkness, which makes the bare earth even more desolate. Moses warns the Egyptian leaders in advance of the eighth plague. (Exodus 10: 4-6.)

The first division of the book gives a vivid description of a plague of locusts, accompanied by drought. Ezra C. Dalby, writing in Land and Leaders of Israel, made reference to the overwhelming calamity of a plague of locusts. He quoted a witness of a plague: “In less than two months after their (the locusts’) first appearance, not only was every green leaf devoured but the very bark was peeled from the trees, which stood out white and lifeless, like skeletons. The fields were stripped to the ground.”

Even Arab babies left by their mothers in the shade of some tree, had their faces devoured before their screams were heard.’ “Brother Dalby, who was principal of West Seminary in Salt Lake City, wrote: “Nothing can stop the locusts in their resistless march; they climb walls, enter houses by doors and windows, and even gnaw the woodwork of the rooms. Like a powerful army, they march through the land, leaving desolation behind them.