I invite you to turn with me to the Prophet Joel in the Old Testament if you like to follow along in some of the text that I'll be referring to here at the outset.

Nobody really knows precisely when Joel was preaching.

But whether or not we can locate his book and his prophecies in its precise chronological

location, what he saw and what he foresaw abides and is very important for us.

And I want us to look at it briefly

and then at its fulfillment in our day.

Joel writes in the midst of crisis, a devastating locust plague has hit Israel and virtually nothing of vine or grain remains. It says, for example, in Chapter 1, verse 4, what the cutting locust left, the swarming locust is eaten. What the swarming locust left the hopping

locust has eaten. What the hopping locust has left the destroying locust has

eaten. And then chapter 2 verse 3, the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but after them a desolate

wilderness and nothing escapes them.

So Joel says, weep you drunkards because there are no more vines to make

your liquor from. But for him, the greatest tragedy is expressed, for example, in verse 9 of chapter 1, the serial

offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord.

The priests mourn and the ministers of the Lord. The priests mourn and the ministers of the Lord. And then he says this

plague was no accident. The locusts are the army of the Lord and it is judgment because the people have turned away from

the Lord.

Chapter 2, verse 11.

The Lord utters his voice before his army and his host is exceedingly great. He that

executes his word is powerful for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible

who can endure it. So Joel calls now for repentance and he says in chapter 2

verse 12 yet even now says the Lord return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and

mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God who knows, who knows whether he will not turn and repent and leave

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