- Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Joel 1:13 – While difficult to date when the book of Joel was written for the prophet doesn’t identify who was king at the time of his serving, we do see him speak about worship at the temple so likely this meant he ministered before the temple was torn down by Babylon. Joel speaks of an invasion of locust that had hit God’s people. They had already destroyed so much and more locusts were coming to destroy even more. This was a dire situation for the people for that meant any sort of plant life to eat was gone, so no wheat for bread and no fruit from the trees and no grapes on the vine. Notice though the direction Joel points the people in why they should mourn. It wasn’t simply mourning because they didn’t have food on the dinner table, they were to mourn because no wheat meant not grain offerings to God and no grapes meant no wine for drink offerings to the Lord. This famine of food equated to a disruption to their ability to worship and offer to the Lord how they were supposed to. I wonder how many of us in that same situation would have had that as our first thought when the locust hit, that this would make it difficult to worship the Lord. We too should mourn for the things that come against our ability to worship the Lord like we are called to. We should mourn when we see hatred between brothers in Christ or division between church leaders. While certainly we can still worship God in the midst of that, such things are like locust eating away at the health that should be there. Let’s have a heart the breaks when we see things come against the church, but also a steadfastness to seek to end its destruction when it comes. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3286
- What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. (v.4) God will get your attention when you’re going the wrong way. That’s the heart of what Joel was getting at with an interesting verse like this one. Again, the passion and devotion of the people of God were being given elsewhere. They we going the wrong way. So God, in His love and desire to have them back, used something like locust and the devastation it would bring to open their eyes to the pain that comes along with a path not after Himself. God will get your attention to if your life isn’t after Him. Maybe He’ll use locust, doubt it though. He will though allow things to take place in our story that will open our eyes to the damage a life away from Him brings and open them to the need for Him in our story. I encourage you to listen to the first “nudges” God places in your life. The ones that are a simple telling you that the direction you’re going isn’t good for you. When we overlooked and shrug off those nudges, God will nudge a little harder. Why? Because He loves to bring about pain in your story? Absolutely not. He wants to keep unneeded pain out of your story which is why He’s directing you away from the path without Him. Know the nudges are not to harm you, but to direct you back to Him and back into the life that will truly be the fulfillment you are looking for. – Daily DEVO 39
- Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? Joel 1:16 – Interesting how there was a correlation between the lack of offerings being given to God and the lack that the people of God had. If you remember, one of the plagues that God used to open the eyes of Pharaoh to the power of God was the same as we see God’s people facing here, locust. God is wanting His people to see their need to turn back to Him. As He has done in the past He is using what He has dominion over to open the eyes of those who have turned away. God’s going to use this same power when it comes to us and our pursuit of Him. Does that mean He’s going to force us to follow Him? Not at all, but He will get our attention when our focus is elsewhere. Where is your focus at today? As we’ll see further on in our readings, God just wants His people that He has saved to follow Him. Let that be your heart today. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1189
- The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: Joel 1:1 – Here in the book of Joel God uses this locust plague and severe drought to open the eyes of the people to the level of devastation that was to come soon as a result of their sin. What we see in this first verse is that God’s Word came to Joel and Joel was given the task to tell that message to the people God directed him to. Joel was given a message and then he shared the message. We too have been given a message and we too are expected to share it. Jesus has come into our world, died for the sin of all, made a way to have life everlasting with Him, and that way is open to all who take it. This is the gospel message we’ve been given, and like Joel, we’re expected to tell that message. Will you? Our cities need churches that are unashamed of the gospel and are sharing the message we’ve been given. If we don’t, we’ll just keep seeing devastation and drought plaguing our cities when life could be flowing through it instead. Like Joel, we have a message to share. Seek someway somehow with someone today to share the message of the Gospel. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2074
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